Bush’s Budget

Even his Republican allies in Congress are having trouble appreciating the new found ‘fiscal discipline’ that George Bush is claiming as he vetoes bill after bill. Today’s Washington Post has some telling comments.

Sen. Charles E. Grassley (Iowa), the conservative ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee:

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. 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.

G. William Hoagland, a Republican budget adviser to former Senate majority leader Bill Frist (Tenn.):

I have difficulty seeing how $11 billion or $22 billion in discretionary spending on the domestic side of the equation is so fiscally irresponsible when juxtaposed against these major AMT provisions of $50 billion, or certainly against the $70-plus billion they want for the global war on terror, Iraq and Afghanistan It doesn't pass the sensible man's test.

Brian Riedl, a conservative budget analyst at the Heritage Foundation:

In his first six years in office, Bush accepted domestic discretionary spending increases from Republican-controlled Congresses that averaged 7 percent a year. In his showdown with the current Democratic Congress, the president is insisting on spending growth of 4 percent at most.

The Bush threat to veto the change to the AMT, if successful, will mean that middle class taxes will rise, although you would never know that from Republican propaganda. His opposition to this change comes from his unwillingness to pay for the AMT by raising taxes on hedge fund managers who get a tax break that is patently unfair.

He also opposes the elimination of incentives to large oil companies. In 2006, Bush opposed more tax incentives. "I will tell you, with $55 oil, we don't need incentives to oil and gas companies to explore," he told a gathering of newspaper editors. "There are plenty of incentives." Grassley said Bush personally reiterated that position to him in 2006, during a private White House session on taxes.

The Bush Presidency will be deemed a success according to their goals of reducing taxes for the richest people in the US, appointing hard right conservatives to the Supreme Court, and getting re-elected. The disaster that resulted to the country in costs of weakened status in the world, squandered resources in Iraq, and massive debt for subsequent years be damned.