The Republican Leader of the U.S. Senate says he hopes the U.S. makes an outright grant to help rebuild Iraq. Last Friday, the Senate voted to make a small part of an 87 billion dollar package for Iraqi operations a loan. But during a news conference Sunday in West Des Moines, Tennessee Senator Bill Frist said extending the money to Iraq as loan is a bad idea.Frist says if you’re swimming and going out to save someone who is drowning, you don’t hand the potential drowning victim a 10-pound weight. A conference in Madrid on Friday will bring countries together to talk about aid for Iraq, and Frist says it’ll be easier for the U.S. to make the case for international cooperation if the U.S. aid is a grant. Frist says the natural reaction among people is to say there’s a potentially wealthy country which has the capacity to repay a loan, but he says the grant is a necessary step in the war on terrorism. Frist was in Iowa Sunday to keynote a fundraiser for Senator Charles Grassley.
