Politics

Let’s watch the rats squirm now:

The Bush administration Tuesday threatened to veto the fiscal 2004 supplemental for Iraq and Afghanistan if a Senate-approved loan provision is accepted. “If this provision is not removed, the president’s senior advisers would recommend that he veto the bill,” OMB Director Josh Bolten said in a letter sent Tuesday to House and Senate Appropriations Committee leaders.

The Senate approved the amendment, despite vigorous White House and GOP leadership lobbying, to convert $10 billion of the Iraq reconstruction funds into a loan unless other nations forgive 90 percent of Iraq’s prewar debt. GOP lawmakers and aides said the provision would likely be removed in conference, as the House bill would provide its entire $18.65 billion Iraq aid package in the form of a grant. “The House will hold firm in support of the president and, in the end, I expect the conference report will drop the loan provision,” House Appropriations Chairman C.W. (Bill) Young, R-Fla., said.

Good for Bush.

The Big No!Post + Comments (8)

I bet the old man is rolling in his grave:

The federal budget deficit hit a record $374.2 billion in 2003, the administration reported Monday, as the costs of the war in Iraq, a new round of tax cuts and economic weakness pushed the government’s red ink to the highest level in history.

Aye Carumba.

However, Bush administration officials noted that the 2003 deficit represented just 3.5 percent of the country’s total economic output, below the 5 percent and 6 percent levels hit in the 1980s during the Reagan administration. The administration prefers to link the deficit to total economic output as a better measure of the country’s ability to carry the debt burden.

The $374.2 billion deficit figure represented an improvement from the administration’s forecast this summer when Bush officials projected the deficit this year would hit $455 billion. Officials credited stronger-than-expected tax collections in recent months in combination with less government spending for the improvement over the summer forecast.

Grotesque.

Poor Ev. DirksenPost + Comments (1)

Watch all the Democrats in the blogosphere and elsewhere, the ones who thinks “Bushitler” is funny, or the ones calling Bush ‘A Miserable Failure,” all get their knickers in a twist over this:

Former first lady Barbara Bush and mother of President Bush described Democrats trying to unseat her son in the White House as a “sorry group” of politicians.

“So far, they are a pretty sorry group if you want to know my opinion,” said Mrs. Bush in an interview aired on Monday by NBC’s “Today” show, when asked about the Democratic line-up for the 2004 presidential election.

“This is the world according to Barbara Bush, not George, not George H.W., not anybody” she added.

Her husband also had some harsh words for the Democratic contenders whom he accused of using “vicious rhetoric.”

“The one who makes the most outrageous charges against the president gets his 20 seconds on the evening news. Hey I did not ride in here on a watermelon cart. I know how it works,” said the former president.

Post the links to the faux outrage in the comments section below.

Vicious RhetoricPost + Comments (25)

I see Clark and Lieberman are skipping the pre-ordained Iowa caucuses. If everyone stops taking this insignificant state’s primaries seriously, will that mean an end to ethanol subsidies?

Bye-Bye, EthanolPost + Comments (2)

The Democrat frontrunner sounds alot like a Republican… again:

From Day One as a Democratic presidential candidate, Wesley K. Clark, the retired general, has had to defend his past praise of the president’s national security advisers

Who Are You?Post + Comments (4)