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Bush has been a disaster for the Republican Party and he keeps nailing the lid shut.
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Bush veto strategy threatens RepublicansBy Steven Thomma and Tony Pugh | McClatchy Newspapers
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
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Bush's political motive is clear: He wants to restore his party's reputation as fiscally conservative after six years of letting domestic spending grow faster than it did under Democrat Bill Clinton.
Thus, a president who didn't veto a single spending bill in his first six years in office now vows to veto not only more spending for children's health insurance but nine other spending bills as well. Bush says Congress mustn't spend more on domestic programs than the $933 billion he requested for fiscal 2008. The Democratic-led Congress wants to spend $22 billion more than that — less than 1 percent of the federal budget. On this difference rests his nine-bill veto threat.
The American people seem to line up against Bush, particularly as he appears to link the two controversies by sending Congress his request to finance the Iraq war at the same time that he's vetoing the State Children's Health Insurance Program.
In a new ABC-Washington Post survey, 67 percent of the respondents said they wanted Congress to reduce the amount of money going to Iraq and Afghanistan, while 27 percent wanted lawmakers to approve Bush's spending request. At the same time, 72 percent said they wanted Congress to approve the additional spending on children's health insurance, while 25 percent opposed it.
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http://www.mcclatchydc.com/226/story/20169.html---