A progressive political blog that highlights the infringement of religion upon today’s government.

The other day I wrote about the President’s veto of a highly popular water projects bill. In that piece I attacked Bush for making a partisan political ploy out of the serious issue of fiscal responsibility. After never vetoing a single spending bill while his Republican cronies were in power, Bush has now vetoed several bills passed under Democratic control. Today I am going to explore just how egregious the Republican “fiscal conservative” myth is.

First I want to say that had Bush ever cared about fiscal responsibility in the past this veto would not be such an issue. However, the hypocrisy of ignoring pork leaden bills passed by his own party, while vetoing much leaner (yet still porky) bills passed under Democrats is clear partisan politics at its worst. The only possible explanation giving that the bill passed with a combined vote of 462 to 52, way more than needed for the override, is that Bush is still throwing his temper tantrum that Congress isn’t doing whatever he wants anymore.

Below is a chart from Citizens Against Government Waste that clearly shows the trending on pork barrel spending. Remember from 1995 to 2006 the Spend and Spend Republicans controlled congress. Luckily Clinton was able to reign in a lot of their spending so the damage doesn’t get bad until after Bush takes over. After that; however, it is clear that having so called fiscal conservatives in the Congress and White House at the same time is a recipe for financial disaster with pork-barrel spending increasing every single year! Well, at least until the fiscally irresponsible Democrats take over again, then somehow it all changes.

In 1995 the Republicans gained the majority in Congress and held onto that majority until the 110th congress took over in 2007. During the decade plus of government by fiscal conservatives congressional earmarks exploded and they turned Clinton’s budget surplus into record deficits. They raided social security to pay for irresponsible tax cuts for their rich buddies. Worst of all they have waged a huge war with no accountability and oversight over funds which has lost billions and billions of dollars. While running the country like a bunch of giddy teenagers with daddy’s credit card they have never let up the attacks on the so called “tax and spend” Democrats. Luckily for them fact checking isn’t really their followers’ thing.

So now after happily funding the Spend and Spend Republicans extravagant spending spree our President wants to call foul on the Democrats for not being fiscally responsible? I am almost at a loss for words for how hypocritical and dishonest this accusation is. Since the Democrats have taken over they have drastically reduced the number and cost of congressional earmarks (see above). Instead of praising their efforts to reign in spending, the president has embarked on a dishonest and partisan offensive with the only motive to help his party in next year’s elections.

So as Congress prepares for their first successful veto override it is important to keep in mind how this administration works. The lessons learned from Karl Rove have not been forgotten. Bush will politicize everything, putting everything second to his desire to win political influence and power no matter the costs. Bush knows this bill, which is being pushed by high powered Republicans, will override his veto without any cuts to spending. He could care less about the spending. This is all about getting in one last jab at the spending habits of Democrats before he leaves town. It is the desperate partisan politics of a spoiled man child who is angry for not getting his way.

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