Bush's Budget Wins May Cost Him-Victories Over Dems Could Increase Debt and Impede His Own Agenda

[babylonsister]

Bush's Budget Wins May Cost Him
Victories Over Democrats Could Increase Debt and Impede His Own Agenda

By Jonathan Weisman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, December 15, 2007; Page A01


As Congress stumbles toward Christmas, President Bush is scoring victory after victory over his Democratic adversaries. He has beaten back domestic spending increases, thwarted an expansion of children's health insurance coverage, defeated tax hikes, won funding for the war in Iraq and pushed Democrats toward shattering their pledge not to add to the federal deficit with new tax cuts or rises in mandatory spending.

But the cost of those wins could be high, both for the federal debt and for the president's own priorities.

Bush's steadfast stand against Democratic spending, coupled with his equally resolute opposition to tax increases, could raise the federal debt this fiscal year by nearly $240 billion. As Democrats struggle to meet his demands, they are jettisoning renewable-energy and conservation incentives that Bush championed, and they may ax some of his most cherished programs.

Even some Republicans bristle at the president's inflexibility. Bush has pledged never to sign bills with tax increases, even tax increases that he once supported.

"I see the president trying to play catch-up in two years for not vetoing anything in the first six years, and probably regretting that he treated the Republican Congress with softer gloves than he did a Democrat Congress," said Sen. Charles E. Grassley (Iowa), the conservative ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee. "He's kind of waking up to the necessity of having a certain policy that ought to be consistently followed, even if it's irrational."

White House officials -- and virtually every other Republican in Congress -- are not about to apologize. "The Democrats are learning this isn't the early 1970s, when the Republican Party was Gerald Ford and 140 of his friends," said Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee. "There are 201 of us, and we will be heard."

more...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/14/AR2007121402212.html

[spanone]

1. and congress will be to blame for facilitating....which is true

[EFerrari]

2. Did you hear Junior exhorting the Democrats yesterday

to be fiscally responsible? I thought he was going to be struck by lightening.

[babylonsister]

3. Yes. But then again, all his speechifyin' is comical these days.

I take him with less than a grain of salt, and for those who hang on his every word, I'm to the point where I feel sorry for them.

I feel just as sorry for us, too, for having to depend on some really inept people who do things they don't need to do.:-(

[EFerrari]

4. The idea that the Democrats can hold still and wait for 2008

seems unworkable to me. The Thuggery will never let them do that.

[babylonsister]

5. Yet they're trying, and that's not working for me - at all. nt

[Bitwit1234]

6. Yep the republicans will be heard...

they were heard for the last seven years and look what's it's got us. The problem is, the American people don't know what is really going on in congess only what the MSM are telling them.

If this was the Democrats blocking, preverting, and preventing any and all bills to get thru, and then when they do veto them, the press would be on it 24/7 and screaming from the roof. What I find so damn interesting is why the Democrats dont' just buy time on TV to make sure their message is heard. If that's what they have to do, they should do it.

[riverdeep]

7. "Don't apologize". Yeah, that's pretty much it in a nutshell.

Once again, to clarify, we're dealing with full-on, hardcore criminals, like you would find in maximum security lockup, not statesmen who have a disagreement in policy matters. I was watching a documentary on gangs some time ago, and noticed the striking similarity of the leadership style and overall value system of the leadership of gangs like the Aryan Brotherhood or MS-13. The ones in the White House don't actually do the physical brutalizing, they have armies and covert operatives to do it for them. Other then that, they are birds of a feather.

Just because they wear suits, and have the trappings of respectability, doesn't make them respectable. Never back down from a bully thinking they will stop if unprovoked. They won't stop once they find out they can take whatever they want.