The politics of spending too much
Here’s where the congressional budget process has gone wrong the last twenty years or so for those that think Congress spends too much:
Now, the problem I have here is this is a two part issue that sums all the problems in Congress right now:
- Spending for Veterans was lumped in with a huge budget for HHS and other agencies. Nevermind any of the rest, HHS is MASSIVE. How does a person filter through all this stuff in a short period of time and pick out the parts that might be waste? The situation now is they can’t. Now, Bob Filner is pressuring Bush to pass the Veterans spending, claiming Bush promised not to veto it. But, they hid it in the HHS budget, which Bush never promised not to veto. So, this advertisement by Filner is flat out lying. However, it pulls at the political sensibilities the common person has by saying Bush is screwing the Veterans. This deception might work, might not. The way it could work is if Bush feels pressured to make sure he keeps true on his promise to pass the Veterans funding, thereby passing the HHS funding that is crammed beyond the brink with pork and waste.
- Without the abilithy of a line-item veto, Bush is stuck either vetoing the Veterans spending, which makes him look bad as Filner is already attempting. Or, he passes a budget crammed full of pork which makes him look bad. No win for the person signing this garbage.
Obviously, the answer to situations like Filner is presenting is a line-item veto ability by the person who signs the spending legislation. Then, that person would no longer be blackmailed by politics from people like Filner. They could pass all the funding and strike out the waste that could be presented at a later date. That would shut up the Filners real quick.
Secondly, remember Pelosi’s promise for a more transparent Congress? Wrapping the Veterans spending in with the Health and Human Resources spending and then whining about the Veterans spending ( which is a tiny fraction of HHS’s spending ), is pure deception folks. Be sure to remember that next fall. I’ll be taking a pop quiz next September.
Lastly, I don’t want to hear another single word about deficit spending that puts the blame solely on Republicans. This budget is purely the Democrat’s baby. And, it’s HUGE. The only thing that will keep the deficit from soaring wildly out of control ( like it wasn’t already ), is if Charlie Rangel gets his wish for much higher taxes on just about anything that could possibly be taxed.
Think about that next fall as well.
November 16, 2007 update: Congress passed the bill, Bush vetoed it as predicted, Congress failed to override it.
