Veto of Spending Bill Is Threatened

Here we go again.

The White House budget director warned on Saturday that President Bush was prepared to veto a $500 billion spending package being assembled in Congress if Democrats pushed for too much additional money for domestic programs.

Jim Nussle, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, accused Democrats of trying to tie money for combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan to what the president considers excessive spending for federal agencies and home-state projects.

“Instead of trying to leverage troop-funding for more pork-barrel spending, Congress ought to pass responsible appropriations bills and the funding for the troops our commanders say they need to build on their battlefield success,” Mr. Nussle said.

Democratic leaders accused the White House of responding hastily to news accounts of the proposal, which is being developed behind closed doors. They said Democrats were determined to devote more resources to national needs like homeland security and law enforcement.

This is absolutely absurd. The Republicans are all over themselves screaming about fiscal responsibility and taking care of the 'people's money' while in the same breath screaming for more unaccountable funds to be sent to the money pit in Iraq and Afghanistan. It is truly amazing that more people haven't caught on to their con by now.

It wasn't that long ago that the Republicans in Congress were spending money like there was no tomorrow. The bloated Highway Bill, passed in 2005, is a perfect example. Let's take a look back.

Even by the standards of Alaska, the land where schemes and dreams come for new life, two bridges approved under the national highway bill passed by the House last week are monuments to the imagination.

One, here in Ketchikan, would be among the biggest in the United States: a mile long, with a top clearance of 200 feet from the water -- 80 feet higher than the Brooklyn Bridge and just 20 feet short of the Golden Gate Bridge. It would connect this economically depressed, rain-soaked town of 7,845 people to an island that has about 50 residents and the area's airport, which offers six flights a day (a few more in summer). It could cost about $200 million.

The other bridge would span an inlet for nearly two miles to tie Anchorage to a port that has a single regular tenant and almost no homes or businesses. It would cost up to $2 billion.

Republicans screaming about the 'people's money'? Hardly! As Rep. Don Young (R) Alaska said at the time,

''I'd like to be a little oinker, myself,'' Mr. Young told a Republican lunch crowd here, taking mock offense at the suggestion that Ted Stevens, the Alaska Republican who is chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, directs more pork to their state than he does. ''If he's the chief porker, I'm upset.''

And did Bush go to the fainting couch protesting about the pork laden bill? Hardly! As he said at the time of the signing at a Caterpillar plant

"If we want people working in America, we got to make sure our highways and roads are modern," Mr. Bush said. "We've got to bring up this transportation system into the 21st century."

"I mean, you can't expect your farmers to be able to get goods to market if we don't have a good road system," he said. "You can't expect to get these Caterpillar products all around the United States if we don't have a good road system."

And the con job continues...