Bush is vetoing bills that would add money to health and education, claiming America just can't afford to spend the money, but he has no problem signing bills that spend four times as much money on the Pentagon. Bush just asked for another $200 billion for his wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but he can't/won't spend another $10 billion on health and education programs for Americans since, according to him, $10 billion spent on Americans is an obscenely high figure. I just refuse to believe that this kind of thing polls well for the Republicans at all. People are sick of this war, and for Bush to outright refuse to help Americans while shoveling the money to foreigners, I mean, wow.
President Bush, escalating his budget battle with Congress, on Tuesday vetoed a spending measure for health and education programs prized by congressional Democrats.
He also signed a big increase in the Pentagon's non-war budget....
Since winning re-election, Bush has sought to cut the labor, health and education measure below the prior year level. But lawmakers have rejected the cuts. The budget that Bush presented in February sought almost $4 billion in cuts to this year's bill.
Democrats responded by adding $10 billion to Bush's request for the 2008 bill. Democrats say spending increases for domestic programs are small compared with Bush's pending war request totaling almost $200 billion.
The $471 billion defense budget gives the Pentagon a 9 percent, $40 billion budget increase....
Huge procurement costs are driving the Pentagon budget ever upward. Once war costs are added in, the total defense budget will be significantly higher than during the typical Cold War year, even after adjusting for inflation.
