Reaching for the Veto Pen
Bush hopes to reassert authority by taking on Congress
If there is one thing President Bush isn't these days, it's shy about confronting Congress. He has held firm on his claims of executive privilege in the investigation of U.S. attorney firings, and made it clear that he believes policy on Iraqis up to him, not Capitol Hill. But his confrontational approach reaches further, into nearly every policy nook in Washington. In the past month or so, Bush has threatened to veto a plan to expand children's health insurance, a bill funding Army Corps water projects, a law on farm policy that passed the House, and almost all of the spending bills that Congress is supposed to pass by October.
Call him "President No."
Yes, they're just threats for now. And there are a few bills he has signed, including one of the Democrats' top priorities, the implementation of most of the remaining recommendations of the 9/11 commission. But advisers are counseling that Bush's best bet to recover from his long slump in public-opinion polls and to brush aside the lame-duck label is to assert his power. "The real problem for Bush now," says a senior Bush administration official, "is that it looks like he doesn't have control over the government." The way out, they say, is to take on the Democratic Congress, whether on Iraq, spending, or domestic priorities.
Threats. So far in his presidency, Bush has kept the cap firmly on his trusty veto pen. He has sent back to Congress only three pieces of legislation: an expansion of stem cell research funding (he nixed that twice) and a war funding bill this spring that included a timeline for the withdrawal of U.S. troops that Bush has been adamantly against.
The president's recent targets are in the area of "fiscal discipline." Bush has threatened to block most of the 12 appropriations bills for federal agencies because they would drive overall spending for fiscal 2008 past the $933 billion in his February budget request. Democrats plan to surpass that figure by a little over $20 billion for mostly domestic priorities—not much when you consider inflation, they say, but too much for Bush.
Democrats are trying to push the spending bills through one by one, although the legislative calendar may work against them. That creates the possibility they might cram them all into one big "omnibus" spending bill. Republicans are ramping up charges that Democrats are heading toward an "omnibust" and say they will stand by the president if he blocks the spending bills. The veto threat hanging over the children's healthcare bill, legislation that has strong backing from key GOP senators, may come a bit sooner. Bush may have more time on a separate farm bill (debate has barely begun in the Senate), although that too must pass by October if Congress is to do more than just extend current policy. All these questions will dominate Washington once lawmakers return from the August recess. That's also when Gen. David Petraeus is to release his report assessing progress in Iraq. So partisan fireworks seem a sure bet for September.
With Kenneth T. Walsh
This story appears in the August 13, 2007 print edition of U.S. News & World Report.
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