Bush Threatens to Veto War Spending Bill
You thought Washington's appetite for big government would go down after the big spending Republicans were defeated last year? Think again.
House Democrats have larded up the war supplemental bill to the tune of $20 billion more than what the White House had requested. This includes the pork projects that I mentioned previously, like $74 million for "peanut storage" and $25 million for spinach growers. Thankfully, in response, the White House issued a veto threat via a "Statement of Administrative Policy" (SAP) yesterday, something that I hope we see a lot more of.
Key excerpt from Bush's SAP (PDF file):
The war supplemental should remain focused on the needs of the troops and should not be used as a vehicle for added non-emergency spending and policy proposals, especially domestic proposals, that should be fully vetted and considered on their own merits, such as minimum wage, various tax proposals, and changes in contracting policy. This bill adds billions in unrequested spending that is largely unjustified and non-emergency. Because of the excessive and extraneous non-emergency spending it contains, if this legislation were presented to the President, he would veto the bill.
Congress should reject this legislation, and promptly send the President a responsible bill that provides the funding and flexibility our troops need, without holding funding for the troops hostage to unrelated spending.
