Spending Control

From IBD:
Posted 4/26/2006

Budget: President Bush has issued a veto threat over the Senate's bloated Iraq-Katrina bill. He's taking on spendthrifts of both parties, and it's about time.

For a man so disinclined to back down before anyone or anything, the president's deferential way with Congress has always seemed out of character. But this week we sense some steel in his message to the Senate over a supplemental spending bill that has gotten out of hand.

The measure in question is an emergency funding bill originally requested by the president to cover costs of the war in Iraq and Gulf Coast hurricane relief. The White House asked for $92.2 billion and, in March, got $91.9 billion from the House. No problem there.

The Senate has been a different story. In the hands of its Appropriations Committee, chaired by Mississippi Republican Thad Cochran, the bill ballooned to $106 billion. Much of the $14 billion in new spending is unrelated to hurricanes or the war.

The biggest add-on is $4 billion to help farms affected by drought, floods or energy costs anywhere in the country — as far away as Hawaii. Other items are geographically related to hurricane recovery and are unnecessary giveaways to states or private enterprise.

Then on Wednesday, the Senate chipped away at President Bush's request for funding for the Iraq effort and diverted $1.9 billion of the $106 billion into border security.

In the latter category there's $700 million, detailed last week on this page, to relocate a freight railroad line on Mississippi's Gulf Coast for the benefit of gambling casino developers. If ever a bill could be called veto bait, it's this one.

It's also a direct challenge to the president's political authority from certain senators of his own party. A few may think they have Bush over a barrel. Indeed, if he vetoes a bill needed to keep the Iraq mission and hurricane relief on track, he risks being blamed for putting the welfare of soldiers and storm victims in jeopardy.

But to judge from a White House statement released Tuesday, it seems that the president is willing to take the risk. The message said Bush would veto any bill that did not meet his original $92.2 billion target with one exception, an added $2.3 billion to prevent an outbreak of bird flu. The White House also said it "strongly objects" to the $700 million rail relocation.

This isn't Bush's first veto threat. According to The New York Times, he has issued 27, and Congress has grown used to ignoring them. What's different this time is that the threat is unusually blunt.

It also reflects the thinking of many, if not most, of the people in the president's own party. Fiscally conservative Republicans correctly figure that the GOP can only lose votes by imitating the Democrats. So Bush has lots of allies who could make a veto stick.

As for the political risks of confronting Senate grandees like Cochran, Bush can rest assured that, as low as his popularity is, the public's job rating of Congress is even lower. And Bush will have the better means of making his case, since Congress has nothing like the presidential bully pulpit.

So we say to the president: Keep your word. Show Congress you're serious. And don't worry that you don't have a line-item veto. The veto power handed down from the Founders and used by all strong presidents is quite enough. In political and fiscal terms, it's time to show just who is in charge.