As I warned a few days ago, the Emperor of Mesopotamia has gone ahead and vetoed the HHS funding bill, claiming it's fiscally irresponsible. Jennifer Loven of AP is actually reality based, as opposed to fair and balanced, in her discussion of budgetary issues:
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. The measure only funds core department operations, omitting Bush's $196 billion request for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, except for an almost $12 billion infusion for new troop vehicles that are resistant to roadside bombs.
Much of the increase in the defense bill is devoted to procuring new and expensive weapons systems, including $6.3 billion for the next-generation F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, $2.8 billion for the Navy's DD(X) destroyer and $3.1 billion for the new Virginia-class attack submarine.
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.
I don't know why Ms. Loven has joined me in hating America, but if you're an America-hater too, enter your zip code and click on the capitol dome, and let your representative and Senators know that you demand a veto override. The vote in the House was three votes short of 2/3, so we only have to swing three more reps into the America hating column to get this done.
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