In a move that reeks of the “too little-too late” blues, president Bush has vowed to veto any spending bills, which do not cut federal spending. If there is one president who has no business speaking about budgetary restraint it’s George W. Bush. According to the president, spending has gotten out of control and he has called on Congress to reign in the purse strings.
In reality Bush shoulders the primary responsibility for the lack of budget control. Bush has been in office for over 5 years and has yet to veto a single bill, Congress thus has been given free reign to pass one excessive budget after another, with the tacit approval of the White House, on the few occasions when Bush has attempted to impose restrictions he has hastily backed down without even making a case, hardly a presidential move.
The president is the last of the big time spenders, spending under Bush has increased far ahead of any president in over 50 years, yet the president claims he is a champion of fiscal responsibility…what nonsense. Its missteps like these, which only embolden the left. Indeed, Bush’s spending programs would make most leftist cringe. No president since Johnson has increased spending by over 20%, yet Bush far eclipses LBJ. Perhaps this reality is telling about the difficulties of a single party in power. With the GOP in control at the White House and on Capitol Hill all semblance of accountability has gone out the window. Under Clinton, a GOP Congress served as a check on Clinton’s excesses resulting in a decrease in spending and a budget surplus. With the GOP firmly in control of both the executive and legislative branches such checks have eluded us. Things would fair only worse had the Democrats managed to wrest control of the legislative and executive branches of government.
Such political failures speak to the need for a vibrant third political party, one which would deny the bloated relics of 1859 and 1828 a solid majority from which to exploit the largess of the American people.
Perhaps the president is serious (finally) about fiscal restraint, but like the French government in response to mob violence, we can fully expect the president to back down.
http://www.examiner.com/Top_News-a71174~Bush_Threatens_Veto_of_Spending_Bills.html
