Nothing for Butter, All for Guns

Bush has just vetoed a bill that would add $10Bn to health and education using the excuse that America can't afford to spend the money. He did, however, sign a defense spending bill that spends four times as much. Not even included in the $40Bn defense bill is a request for another $200 billion for his wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. This kind of bullshit will not play well with the American public (if the MSM ever tells them). Every poll you see says that people are sick of this war and sick of Bush. They are tired of seeing money flow out of America and into Iraq. In a normal world there would be riots. How long can this insanity play out?

From AP:

President Bush, escalating his budget battle with Congress, on Tuesday vetoed a spending measure for health and education programs prized by congressional Democrats.

He also signed a big increase in the Pentagon's non-war budget....

Since winning re-election, Bush has sought to cut the labor, health and education measure below the prior year level. But lawmakers have rejected the cuts. The budget that Bush presented in February sought almost $4 billion in cuts to this year's bill.

Democrats responded by adding $10 billion to Bush's request for the 2008 bill. Democrats say spending increases for domestic programs are small compared with Bush's pending war request totaling almost $200 billion.

The $471 billion defense budget gives the Pentagon a 9 percent, $40 billion budget increase....

Huge procurement costs are driving the Pentagon budget ever upward. Once war costs are added in, the total defense budget will be significantly higher than during the typical Cold War year, even after adjusting for inflation.