Today President George Bush vetoed a spending bill that would have funded the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education. Congress doesn’t have the votes to override the veto.
In an article in the Washington Post, President Bush said “the bill spends nearly $10 billion more than his proposed budget and includes more than 2,200 pet projects, or earmarks, such as a prison museum, a sailing school taught aboard a catamaran and a program teaching Portuguese as a second language.”
The Democrats response? Threatening to withhold funding for the Iraq war.
In a press conference this afternoon, Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) said “…that Bush will not get more money to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan this year unless he accepts a plan to complete troop withdrawals by the end of next year.”
To me this is an empty threat from the Democrats. They have done this many times before but they will not risk putting troops at risk in an election year. It would look bad for the Democrats because they would be seen as blocking support for our troops who are in harms way.
No Action Congress
The current Congress is worthless. They are failing to get spending bills through in a timely manner. To date, only one spending bill has been approved and that was signed today. That is pitiful. Two of the twelve spending bills sent to the President? We need to ask more of our Congress.
This goes to show why the Congress has a much lower approval rating than the President’s current approval rating.
It will be interesting to see what happens over the next couple of months, but I don’t think much will get done. Especially since the President is threatening to veto more spending bills.
Mile High Soapbox 