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President Bush on Tuesday slammed Congress for not getting its work done and focusing too much on investigating his administration and repeatedly attempting to pull U.S. troops out of Iraq. “We’re near the end of the year, and there really isn’t much to show for it,” Bush told reporters following a meeting with House GOP leaders. “The House of Representatives has wasted valuable time on a constant stream of investigations, and the Senate has wasted valuable time on an endless series of failed votes to pull our troops out of Iraq,” the president said. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) rejected Bush’s attacks. “The president calls congressional oversight that has uncovered tens of billions of dollars in waste, fraud, and abuse in Iraq a ‘waste of time,’ ” Pelosi said. “We call billions spent in no-bid contracts to Halliburton a waste of money.” With regard to Bush’s claim that the 110th Congress has little to show for, Pelosi pointed to several major bills that have been signed into law this year, including homeland security legislation, a minimum wage increase, and a tightening of lobbying and ethics rules. “Instead of criticizing Congress, the president’s time would be better spent working in a bipartisan way to end this disastrous war in Iraq, keep our promises to our veterans by providing the largest veterans’ healthcare investment in history, and providing healthcare for 10 million children.” Bush also painted the picture of “tax and spend” Democrats being in charge of Congress, saying that they have passed an “endless series of tax increases” and “haven’t seen a bill they could not solve without shoving a tax hike into it.” He pointed to recent legislation to expand the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, the farm bill, the energy bill and a small business bill as examples of Democrats’ effort to raise taxes. Bush also argued that “proposed spending is skyrocketing under their leadership.” The president said that the Democrats seek to spend an additional $205 billion over the next five years. Lastly, the president, referencing reports that Democrats could attempt to tie an Iraq supplemental spending bill and the Veterans Affairs funding legislation to the Labor/HHS appropriations bill, said it is “hard to imagine a more cynical political strategy than trying to hold hostage funding for our troops in combat and our wounded warriors in order to extract $11 billion in additional social spending.” Bush said he would “veto such a three-bill pileup,” and urged Congress to pass the measures separately. |
