The Government Battle On Spending: President Bush Takes Up the Veto Pen

President Bush is about to take up the veto pen. The veto was little used during the first six years of the Bush 43 Presidency, but will be employed with abandon during the last two. By so doing, President Bush may well end his Presidency on a high note.

The Democrat controlled Congress is getting ready to send to the White House appropriations bills larded with extra spending and earmarks (i.e. pork barrel spending.) President Bush intends to veto at least eight and as many as eleven of these bills.

For President Bush to sustain his veto, 146 members of the House must vote to do so. 147 Republican members of the House have already signed a pledge promising to sustain any Presidential veto of a spending bill, thus one more than necessary.

Oddly enough this was the same sort of strategy that President Clinton used to regain his relevance after the Gingrich Revolution brought Congress under Republican control. Of course the twist is that Clinton demanded more spending, not less, but the President and his allies hope that the same principle applies.

Democrats in the Congress have made themselves vulnerable on the issue of spending. Having been elected on a promise to rein in spending and the use of earmarks, the Congressional Democrats have reversed themselves, with the intention of exceeding anything that the Republicans have been guilty of doing in previous years.

The hypocrisy by Congressional Democrats on spending and earmarks has been breathtaking. An attempt by House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey to keep earmarks secret until the very last minute was thwarted by a revolt by House Republicans that tied the House in procedural knots for days.

President Bush and his supporters have been heartened by the fact that they have been successful already in rolling Congressional Democrats. Besides the House earmarks fight, President Bush and his Congressional Republican allies were able to turn back a Democrat attempt to force a withdraw of American troops from Iraq.