WASHINGTON, Oct. 30 — President Bush lashed out at Congress today, the third time he has done so in two weeks, this time saying the House had wasted time on “a constant string of investigations” and the Senate had similarly wasted its efforts by trying to rein in the Iraq war. Its failure to send a single annual appropriations bill to his desk, he said, amounted to “the worst record for a Congress in 20 years.”
“Congress is not getting its work done,” the president said in brief remarks from the North Portico of the White House.
He urged Congress to act on defense-funding legislation and on a compromise on the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, or S-CHIP.
As he spoke, Mr. Bush was flanked by two senior Republicans, Representative John Boehner of Ohio, the minority leader, and Representative Roy Blunt of Missouri, the minority whip. The three had emerged from a meeting in the East Room of the House Republican Conference, and perhaps reflecting the campaign season under way, the president’s words took on a partisan edge.
Representative Nancy Pelosi, the House speaker, responded sharply to the president’s criticisms.
“The president calls Congressional oversight that has uncovered tens of billions of dollars in waste, fraud and abuse in Iraq a ‘waste of time.’ We call billions spent in no-bid contracts to Halliburton a waste of money,” she said in a statement released by her office.
“Instead of criticizing Congress,” Mrs. Pelosi continued, “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’ health care investment in history, and providing health care for 10 million children.”
Republicans have chafed amid the nearly continuous investigations, many by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, which that panel’s Democratic leadership describes as accountability.
Referring to the current congressional session, Mr. Bush said: “We’re near the end of the year, and there really isn’t much to show for it. 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.”
Members of the Democratic-led Congress, he added, hadn’t “seen a bill they could not solve without shoving a tax hike into it.”
“Proposed spending is skyrocketing under their leadership,” he said.
But Democrats, and some Republicans, have regularly criticized the administration for spending increases since Mr. Bush came to office.
The president again criticized Democrats over the S-CHIP bill, saying the Senate had taken up a second version of the legislation passed by the House “despite knowing it does not have a chance of becoming law.”
While the president vetoed the first version, saying it spent too much money and covered not just the poor children it is intended to help but some middle-class children and adults, he said this version would spend even more.
“After going alone and going nowhere, Congress should instead work with the administration on a bill that puts poor children first,” he said. “We want to sit down in good faith and come up with a bill that is responsible.”
Mr. Bush was also sharply critical of a reported plan by congressional leaders to combine the Defense Department appropriations bill with bills for domestic departments.
“It’s 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,” he said.
The president had used scathing language about the Democratic majority during an Oct. 17 news conference, saying Congress was dragging its feet on a range of important legislation while spending time debating whether the deaths of more than a million Armenians in the early 20th century amounted to a genocide at Turkish hands.
The president had continued his denunciations of Congress last Friday, saying its leaders had also failed to act yet to confirm Michael Mukasey as attorney general, despite Democrats’ complaints about a lack of leadership at the Justice Department. “This is not what congressional leaders promised when they took control of Congress earlier this year,” he said then.
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/30/washington/30cnd-policy.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
P.S. Well excusssssse me! Look who's talking about 'wasting time'? The last time I checked the Despot in Charge had not accomplished a single thing since he galavanted into the White House almost 7 years ago; With his "mandate" or capital, which he so flamboyantly flaunted; Yet, he hasn't accomplished an iota, except to bankrupt the country, a billion at a time. Always with his hand out asking for more Billions$$$ for his military ambitions around the world. His repudiation of the principles of the Constitution, and his restrictive Patriot Acts. He has also stocked the Supreme Court chock full with Vatican operatives. And lest we forget the endless war on terror which has cost more lives than can be counted. Nothing of any redeeming value has been achieved under his watch. History will only remember all that was lost while this president sat in the Oval Office. No child left behind was his motto? Yet, he has the audacity to point out the Congress lolly-gagging?
Is this what they call the bully pulpit??? Blogmaster.
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