Bush On The Air: Stopping The Budget Gap
September 29, 2007, 6:51pm
The federal government’s fiscal year ends tomorrow, and in the modern era that means one thing: It’s time for another stopgap spending bill to keep the government running.
For years, Congress has proved incapable of passing most of the annual bills on time. Instead, lawmakers and the president repeatedly have fallen back on short-term spending laws to keep government programs funded while they continue bickering over how to spend the money a year at a time. Republicans were guilty of it in the years they controlled Congress, and Democrats haven’t done any better this year.
With a Republican in the White House, though, that creates a political opportunity too good to ignore. So President Bush seized the opportunity to bash Democrats in his weekly radio address.
“This legislation was necessary because Congress failed in its most basic responsibility: to pass the spending bills that fund the day-to-day operations of the government,” Bush said. “There are 12 of these bills this year, and Congress did not complete a single one of them, so Congress had to send me a stopgap measure before the fiscal year ends this Sunday at midnight.”
He lauded Congress for funding the State Children’s Health Insurance Program at its current level even as Bush plans to veto a bill to expand the program. But he also scolded lawmakers for proposing, as part of the annual bills, $205 million more in spending than he requested for fiscal 2008 and for separately “planning the biggest tax increase in American history.”
Democrats took a political potshot of their own in their weekly radio address by recruiting a 12-year-old to make the case for S-CHIP. Graeme Frost of Baltimore said that without S-CHIP, he might not be alive today because of an accident that left him in a coma for a week.
“I don’t know why President Bush wants to stop kids who really need help from getting CHIP,” Frost said. “All I know is I have some really good doctors. They took great care of me when I was sick, and I’m glad I could see them because of the children’s health program. I just hope the president will listen to my story and help other kids to be as lucky as me.”
Categories: Podcast of the Week, Health, Weekly Radio Address, Budget, Taxes
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