Maffei campaign: Buerkle offers no alternatives for war in Afghanistan.
View full sizeRepublican congressional candidate Ann Marie Buerkle says U.S. Rep. Dan Maffei, D-DeWitt, is turning his back on American troops in Afghanistan.Washington -- U.S. Rep. Dan Maffei’s opponent today accused him of “turning his back on troops at war” after he voted against a spending bill to support a surge of 30,000 troops in Afghanistan.
Republican Ann Marie Buerkle, who is seeking the 25th Congressional District seat, said it was a “dangerous time” for Maffei “to have concerns about large government spending.”
Buerkle, of Onondaga, Hill, said she would have joined the majority of Democrats and Republicans who voted 308-114 Tuesday to approve a $59 billion emergency spending measure to pay for the troop surge.
Only 12 Republicans joined Maffei and other Democrats who voted against the bill.
The spending measure included $33 billion to support the extra troops that President Obama sent to Afghanistan, beginning in December. Without the approval, Pentagon leaders warned they could have run out of money for the troops as early as Aug. 7.
“These troops have just been deployed,” Buerkle said Wednesday. “To not fund them is a big issue to me. It’s like you are turning your back on these men and women who have been deployed.”
She said Maffei’s long-stated opposition to the war should not have influenced his vote about paying for troops already in the battlefield in Afghanistan.
“People may have doubts about the war, but I don’t think that’s the issue,” she said. “We have to give these troops what they need.”
Maffei, who visited Afghanistan in December and concluded there was no need for a troop surge, said he believes the money could be put to better use back home.
“Now we are asking our troops to nation build, and we cannot afford to be doing that at this time,” Maffei said in a statement. “During a time when communities are laying off police officers and teachers due to the recession, why are we providing funds to train police officers and teachers in Afghanistan?”
He added, “It just doesn’t make sense. We've asked enough of our troops already in Afghanistan, and it is past time to bring them home.”
Buerkle, when asked about her position on the war in Afghanistan, said it is a complex issue that she is still sorting out, but she knows President Obama’s strategy must change.
“I think it’s very hard to define what victory in Afghanistan would look like,” Buerkle said.
Maffei's campaign manager, Dan McNally, said Buerkle has offered no alternative to the status quo in Afghanistan.
"The fact that Anne Marie Buerkle can't articulate any kind of policy on the war in Afghanistan is exactly what's wrong with putting politics first," McNally said.
"Like the Republicans in Congress, her plan so far has been say 'no' while at the same time offering no substantive positions of her own," McNally said. "It's absurd. She's against both Dan Maffei's position to end the war and Barack Obama's position to continue it."
Buerkle noted that the bill opposed by Maffei included other spending items to support troops and veterans, including more than $13 billion for Vietnam veterans exposed to Agent Orange.
“That’s the very least we could do for the vets who suffered in Vietnam,” Buerkle said. “That seems to me not to be the place to become fiscally conservative about spending.”
Contact Washington correspondent Mark Weiner at mweiner@syracuse.com or 571-970-3751.