Bush's Empty Threat of His Veto

With all due respect to the conservatives, Bush's fiscal credentials and performance during his five years in office should be given a score of ZERO! It's quite simple. On March 20, George W. Bush will pass a historic milestone by passing James Monroe for second place. Only Thomas Jefferson is in first place. Do you know what it is?

U.S. presidents who went the longest without vetoing legislation. (Check out the figures)

Bush has never followed through on his threats to use his presidential authority to reject spending or policy measures that have exceeded his administration's guidelines. With his poll figures numbering in the high 30 to lower 40's (yes, Bush may choose to ignore them, but senior Republicans leaders cannot), many members from both political parties just see his veto threats as empty ones.

Now, he wants a line-item veto. Perhaps he misses being Governor of Texas, where its state constitution does allow the use of the line-item veto. Is it possible that Bush is sifting through the old "Contract with America" files? Perhaps he can remake an old idea with some glitter and call it one of own Bushisms.

"Too many bills passed by Congress include unnecessary spending," Bush said. Really, we did not know that (Slap to the forehead)! The line-item veto would "give me the authority to strip special spending and earmarks out of a bill, and then send them back." Hmm, actually, Bush has been exercising the line-item special, by excluding the emergency military bills for Iraq and Afghanistan. He does not even include their figures into his "official" budget. Ask a fiscal conservative. Does this really, honestly, truthfully makes sense?

Former House Majority Leader (Texas Republican) Dick Armey said, "I consider the president's call for a line-item veto more of a political statement than a policy statement. A lot of us have been trying for this since 1984, and given all the challenges, a lot of people don't think it's worth their time anymore."

Bush wants the public to focus on his proposal because of their anger at congressional prerogatives (also known as earmarks, which is also known as PORK or PORK BARREL PROJECTS!). Come on here, this has been a nuisance dating back through the last decade or so, and it happen under both Democratic and Republican administrations. Perhaps because last year, total pork barrel projects for 2005 numbering 15,000 cost taxpayers over $47 billion dollars.

But back to his veto threats. According to the White House budget office, Bush has threatened to veto 133 bills as president. His most recent threat was against any congressional move to block the Dubai ports deal. He said that the absence of any vetos shows that he and the Republican-controlled Congress are working well together. This can be debatable. He did have to compromise with a Democratic-led Senate for a short period when Jeffords defected from his party to become an independent. He did sign a bloated highway spending budget where it contained over 6,300 earmarks. Now, Congressional Republicans are becoming more confrontational with the President as the November elections start to approach.

Does Bush have any political capital left to issue any more veto threats? We will see in his final three years in office.

Bloomberg - Bush, Veto Pen Unused After Five Years, Seeks Line-Item Power