If violence is decreasing in Iraq, it may be because insurgents “are running out of people to kill,” House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey (D-Wis.) said Monday.

“There are fewer targets of opportunity,” Obey said in a speech to the National Press Club.

“The issue has never been military,” Obey said. “The issue has always been political improvement.”

As the House’s top appropriator, Obey has his hands on the nation’s purse strings, giving him a significant say on the war in Iraq.

In his speech Monday, he stuck by his pledge not to approve any more money for the war until President Bush changes course on Iraq. He also offered a spirited defense of a new surtax to pay for the Iraq war, admitting that he knew it wouldn’t pass when he offered his support for the plan. But he said it highlighted the fact that Bush has loaded the cost of the war onto the national debt while pushing tax cuts tilted to the wealthy.

The surtax plan, which is backed by Reps. John Murtha (D-Pa.) and James McGovern (D-Mass.), would raise $150 billion a year for the war.

“That may not be a popular thing to do, but it’s a hell of a lot more responsible than sending the bill to your kids,” Obey said.

Obey is the point man among House Democrats on the looming spending battle with Bush, which Obey called a “manufactured controversy” and an “unnecessary diversion.” President Bush has threatened to veto any bills that exceed his requested spending levels, which together are $22 billion less than what Democrats have proposed.

He also accused President Bush, his allies and his aides of hypocrisy and an unwillingness to negotiate that is immature.

He said that when Democrats were in the majority, they worked with Republicans “like adults” to get spending bills passed.

“I believed that the way politics is supposed to work is that we are supposed to first define our differences and then work like adults to find ways to resolve them,” Obey said.

But this year, he said, Republicans have engaged in “filibuster by amendment,” trying to delay the process and then complaining when Democrats maneuvered to get bills passed by combining them.

“I find it interesting that [Bush] now raises objections, because we are doing what his party did for so long,” Obey said.

Obey and his fellow Democrats combined the bill for labor, education and social spending — which is disliked by Bush — with the military construction spending bill, which includes the budget for veterans’ affairs and is popular with Bush. But Republicans have said the maneuver could stall veterans’ funding.

“That claim is enough to give hypocrisy a bad name,” Obey said, noting that last year, Republicans failed to pass any stand-alone domestic spending bills, including for military construction.

White House budget office spokesman Sean Kevelighan said the difference is that previous GOP Congresses abided by President Bush’s “top-line” overall spending cap.

“We’re in a different environment in this Congress,” Kevelighan said. “Unfortunately, what we’re finding with this Congress is that the reaction to everything is to raise taxes or spending more taxpayer dollars.”

“With time running out this year and not a single bill complete, Democratic leaders may want to start focusing on the work that must be done now instead of blaming everyone but themselves for their pork-filled, shoddy work,” said Brian Kennedy, spokesman for House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio).