|
President Bush on Friday returned to Washington from reviewing the devastation caused by California’s wildfires and ripped the Democratic-led Congress on a host of issues. In an address at the White House, Bush pronounced himself “disappointed by what Congress had been doing and even more disappointed by what they had not been doing.” Bush blasted the House for passing an expansion of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program that was more expensive than the version Bush vetoed earlier this month. He also criticized Democratic leaders for not meeting with the members of the administration he had designated to find a compromise with Congress. “Incredibly enough, the Senate will take up the same bill next week, which wastes valuable time,” Bush said. The president also criticized the tax reform legislation that House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) introduced Thursday. Bush faulted the lawmaker for introducing a plan that raises taxes on “more than a million small-business owners, among others,” according to the president. Bush also took Congress to task for not acting on the nomination of Michael Mukasey, whom the president picked as attorney general, and a supplemental funding bill for the war. However, the president reserved his harshest comments for the Democrats’ failure to present him with a single appropriations bill. “Today Congress set a record they should not be proud of,” he said. “October the 26th is the latest date in 20 years that Congress has failed to get a single annual appropriations bill to the president’s desk.” Lastly, Bush stated that Congress sent him a “fiscally irresponsible” water resources bill earlier this week. “The House version came in at $15 billion. The Senate version came in at $14 billion. So, the House and Senate compromised, and sent me a bill that cost $23 billion. In Washington, they call that splitting the difference,” the president quipped. |
