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Politics : Impeach George W. Bush -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Raymond Duray who wrote (15721)	10/19/2002 4:14:52 AM
From: jttmab	Respond to of 93284

Good story this morning on the budget...... By Jonathan Weisman Washington Post Staff Writer Saturday, October 19, 2002; Page A04 In February, with the memory of Sept. 11 still fresh, President Bush released his 2003 spending request, seeking a dramatic reordering of domestic spending priorities: large increases for homeland security and austere budgets in many other areas. But since then, the White House appears to have put more emphasis on holding the line on overall spending levels than on winning the spending increases it has sought. The president's high-stakes demand for fiscal discipline in areas he has not emphasized has jeopardized his top priorities. In limbo are billions of proposed dollars to secure the nation's ports and skies, defend against bioterrorism, bolster corporate watchdogs, enhance reading education and fund the president's national service push. Instead of funding those proposals, lawmakers voted this week to keep federal agencies running at current spending levels until Nov. 22, leaving town with the non-military side of government practically operating as if Sept. 11 never happened. Yet White House spokesman Ari Fleischer sought yesterday to paint the impasse as a Bush victory. "For the first time in probably a decade, Congress has left town before an election without going on a spending spree using taxpayers' money," Fleischer told reporters. "There's a new sheriff in town, and he's dedicated to fiscal discipline. And Congress for the first time in a decade has listened to the new sheriff." Bob Ricks, Oklahoma's secretary of safety and security, has a decidedly different view. "I couldn't believe they were willing to go home and face the voters when the most important issue on the plate is homeland security," said Ricks, who has been promised as much as $44 million for upgrading emergency response statewide. "After [the] events of 9/11, I thought those things would sail through, but I guess politics was more important than our security." Leon E. Panetta, a Clinton administration budget director, said: "If there's a new sheriff in town, his pants are down and he doesn't have any bullets in the gun. Good Lord, the budget process has collapsed and somehow they've claimed success?"........ washingtonpost.com