The lead up to the Democrats sustaining a presidential veto of a Senate vote against the Iranian nuclear deal feels a little like the days and weeks before ObamaCare became law.
There is the same certainty that, no matter what the public thinks, something bad for the country is inevitable. But President Obama and his diplomats know what's best, just as the president and his domestic advisers knew what was best before ObamaCare.
The Middle East is always on a boil, but the turmoil will become bloodier as Iran has more money (courtesy of the deal) to pour into supporting terrorism. The Iranian deal means more money in the pockets of terrorists with Hezbollah and Hamas.
Adam Kredo of the Free Beacon has a report today on how much Iran is already spending on the salaries of regional terrorists:
Iran has been spending billions of dollars to fund the salaries of terrorist fighters across the Middle East, including in Yemen, Syria, Lebanon, and the Gaza Strip, according to a private U.S. government analysis conducted for a leading senator, the Washington Free Beacon has learned.
Iran’s defense budget ranges anywhere from $14 to $30 billion a year, with much of that money going to fund terrorist proxy groups and rebel fighters in a number of countries, according to a Congressional Research Service report conducted following a request by Sen. Mark Kirk (R., Ill.).
The report discloses that funding for these terrorist groups could actually be much higher, as Iran obfuscates public records about its defense spending and financial support for paramilitary groups secretly conducting operations outside the Islamic Republic.
The report was assembled following a request by Kirk for the Obama administration to disclose its estimates of “Iranian military spending, as well as Iranian assistance to Houthi rebels in Yemen, Shiite militias in Iraq, the Assad government, Hezbollah, and Hamas,” according to a copy of that report obtained by the Free Beacon.
This includes potentially millions of dollars in monthly payments to pro-government forces in Syria, more than $1 billion in military aid to fighters in Iraq, and around $20 million annually to Hamas terrorists, according to the report.
Jewish support for the deal is less important than it was before the administration was assured of the votes to override a veto, but Vice President Joe Biden did meet with Jewish leaders in Florida a few days ago.
Biden addressed yet another concern: whether the U.S. will really know if Iran is cheating on the deal. Here is an intriguing quote from the meeting:
Biden also said it is “simply not true” as some opponents suggest, that the deal gives the international community no ability to know what’s going on in Iranian military facilities. Provocatively, he invoked former President George H.W. Bush. “As one person said: Read my lips,” the vice president said. “Not true. We can.”
Doesn't Biden remember George H.W. Bush's read-my-lips pledge is remembered now mostly because he famously reneged on the promise? It was politically devastating for Bush and his party and not popular with the American taxpayer, but it wasn't nearly as devastating for the entire world as an Iran with nuclear weapons will be.