By Richard Cowan and Susan Cornwell WASHINGTON, Nov 15 (Reuters) - Democrats who lead Congress likened President George W. Bush on Thursday to a bully on Iraq war policy and vowed to spend no more on combat without a deadline for bringing U.S. troops home. "He damn sure is not entitled to having this money given to him just with a blank check," Sen. Harry Reid, the Democrats' Senate leader, told reporters. "Americans need someone fighting for them taking on this bully we have in the White House," he said. Reid and other Democrats, who hold slim majorities in both houses of Congress, accused Bush of wanting a free-flow of hundreds of billions of dollars for the Iraq war, all the while being tight-fisted on the home front. "Every dollar we spend in Iraq comes at the expense of people in America," Reid said. The House of Representatives on Wednesday approved a timetable for withdrawing troops from Iraq, defying the Republican Bush by tying the measure to $50 billion in new war funds. The money would be only about a quarter of what Bush has requested. The vote was 218-203. Senate Democrats said they would force a vote very soon on legislation that sets a goal for ending U.S. combat in Iraq. Under the Democrats' plan, there would be a non-binding goal to get all American combat soldiers out of Iraq by Dec. 15, 2008. The measure faces an uphill fight in the Senate where Republicans have vowed to block it, and the White House has said it will veto it. Reid insisted the Senate would vote by Sunday and his counterpart, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, said there would be no compromise before the end of the year, setting the stage for a standoff into early 2008. Republicans said they would try to pass an alternative measure giving the Pentagon $70 billion without any strings attached. "CLEAN" BILL Late on Wednesday, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino called on Congress to send Bush a "clean" emergency funding bill, without withdrawal dates. "If legislation comes to the president in this form, he will certainly veto it," Perino said in a statement after the House vote. The Army warned that unless Congress approved more money by mid-February, it might have to lay off more than 100,000 civilians and cancel contracts in order to finance the wars. Army Secretary Pete Geren told the Senate Armed Services Committee the Pentagon had $27 billion it could use for war operations and it was likely to run out by then. "We will beggar the home front to make sure our soldiers in theater have everything they need," Geren said. The White House has asked for $196 billion for the two wars in the fiscal year that began on Oct. 1. Since the wars began, the Bush administration has made mostly "emergency" funding requests for them, separate from the regular Pentagon budget. Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Casey told the committee the war had placed great strains on soldiers, families and equipment because of lengthy and repeated deployments. "The current demand of our forces exceeds the sustainable supply. We are consumed with meeting the demands of the current fight and are unable to provide ready forces as rapidly as necessary for other potential contingencies," he said. (Editing by Howard Goller)
