As Congress considers President Bush's request for another $200 billion for Iraq, 54% of Americans want Bush to bring U.S. troops home within 6 months, according to a Democrats.com telephone poll of 618 adults conducted from September 6-9, 2007 by ICR.

An overwhelming majority (73%) of Americans want U.S. troops home in a year, the poll found.

This is the first poll that asked voters to choose between President Bush's funding request of $200 billion and other funding options.

The single largest group - 40% - want Bush to bring U.S. troops home within 6 months using funds Congress has already given him for Iraq, which now totals $450 billion. That is the position advocated by Democratic Presidential candidate Rep. Dennis Kucinich.

Another 14% would give President Bush $50 billion more to bring our troops home within 6 months.

Another 19% would give President Bush $200 billion more - the amount he requested - but would require a deadline to bring U.S. troops safely home within a year.

Just one in eight Americans (13%) support the Republican position of giving Bush a $200 billion check without any deadline.

We asked this question:

President Bush wants Congress to spend 200 billion dollars more in tax dollars next year to keep U.S. troops in Iraq with no plans to bring them home. Should Congress:

Among Republican voters, a solid 52% majority support a deadline of one year or less, while just 31% support a blank check for President Bush. Remarkably, 23% of Republicans support the Kucinich position of bringing troops home within 6 months using existing funds.

Democratic leaders have not presented their own funding plan, but said last week they were leaning towards providing Bush with his full request of $200 billion with no deadlines - the position supported by just 13% of Americans.

In July, leaders of the Progressive Caucus told President Bush they would only provide new funds to bring U.S. troops safely home by the end of his term in January 2009, which is now 16 months away. They did not specify how much funding they would support. 70 Members of Congress (including Republican Presidential candidate Ron Paul) signed this letter, and several more Members are expected to sign in the coming days.

Update 1: Strategic Vision, a Republican polling firm, uses a heavily biased version of our question:

Do you favor an immediate withdrawal of the United States military forces from Iraq, within the six months?

The only answers are yes or no. Obviously the "no" answer could mean many different things so it's analytically useless, but the "yes" answers are fascinating, especially since they are broken out by state, and in Iowa by party:

This sample includes two southern states (GA and FL), three midwestern states (IA, MI, WI), and two eastern states (PA, NJ). While it's impossible to average these numbers or extrapolate them to represent regions, support for a six-month withdrawal seems strongest in the Midwest.

Our poll shows the opposite - support for a six-month withdrawal is weakest in the "North Central" region, but some of that difference is "made up" when 1-year withdrawal is included. The South most strongly supports a blank check for endless occupation, but even there it's under 16%.