Bush Releases Billions More for Vets

[bemildred]

1.) This is a good thing, right?
2.) Notice how Bush "released" the money that Congress "requested"?

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Bush on Thursday released $3.7 billion in emergency money that Congress requested to care for veterans, including those returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Bush released the emergency funds even though he said he thought the money should have been considered as part of the normal appropriations process. The emergency money was tucked in a $550 billion government spending measure that Congress passed last month before leaving for the holidays.

"While I believe that these funds should have been considered as regular appropriations, the men and women who have sacrificed for our country should not be held hostage to budgetary wrangling in Washington," Bush said in a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, said the emergency funds were needed because the veterans budget proposed by the president would have underfunded the Veterans Affairs Department at a time when there was a need to expand mental health care, improve treatment for traumatic brain injuries and reverse a claims backlog.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5h_kBL0bef4f73a-c6JfqCY_ZYA_gD8U7TRJG4

[aquart]

1. Make the bad man go away, Mommy.

[babylonsister]

2. I'm frankly shocked; I wonder what the trade-off was. I can't imagine

him doing this out of the kindness of his heart...

[rodeodance]

3. Bush had to make his point (pocket -veto) on the backs of vets. Now wants to be the good guy!!

[focusfan]

4. What I want to know is how can we keep spending what we don`t have

Can a country file for bankruptcy,I believe we qualify.

[momster]

5. He Wants 45%

The master of low expectations wants to leave office with 45% of the population looking on him favorably. He'll hand out wads of money (see today's speech), do more photo-ops (see Mid-East Tour that had no other purpose), he'll probably throw out the first baseball *and* his daughter's getting married...though not at the WH. He's desperate.