U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Dole and Hillary Rodham Clinton are in agreement that Iraq should start paying for its own reconstruction.
Dole, a Salisbury Republican, joined Clinton and eight other colleagues today in saying they want the beleagued nation to get some new United States tax dollars in the form of a loan -- not a grant.
They also called on Iraq to pay for some of the American military's needs, including its fuel costs, reports Barb Barrett.
The senators said in a letter to Senate spending leaders that oil prices will give Iraq an enormous chunk off dollars and that it should use some of that to help itself. They said the United States should end its "blank check policy" toward Iraq.
Several senators expressed as much in remarks to Gen. David Petraeus recently in his visits to Capitol Hill.
The senators plan to offer an amendment in the next war supplemental bill that would require Iraq to repay some of its reconstruction costs.
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