Bush vs Marine: Peanuts and war Posted by Mark Silva at 9:06 am CDT
"I like peanuts as much as the next guy,'' President Bush said today, "but I believe the security of our troops should come before the security of our peanut crop.''
And with these unlikely words, delivered in his weekly radio address, the president spelled out some of his complaints about the $100-billion-plus war-spending bills that the House and Senate have approved which are laden with "special-interest'' projects such as $75 million for peanut farmers -- not to mention the timelines for withdrawals of American military forces from Iraq that the president vows to veto.
But it's the timelines, more than the peanut cash, which the Democratic Party wants to talk about. Retired Lt. Col. Andrew Horne, "a loyal Marine'' and Iraq and Gulf War veteran, delivers the party's response to the president with a message that: "These bills both demand something that previous Congresses did not – accountability from the administration. Both bills demand that the president continue to verify that we are moving Iraq towards stability, and that we are on track to disengage our combat troops from the Iraqi Civil War by 2008.''
The peanut money really is peanuts, however, compared to the spending that Bush is criticizing in proposed new federal budgets that the House and Senate also have advanced for 2008. Their $3-trillion-plus spending plans for next year include more than what the president has sought, he said - $145 billion more in the Senate plan, $213 billion more in the House plan. And that, Bush warns, means raising taxes.
