Bush, Congress Fight Over War Cost

Nov. 13, 2007 — -- President Bush sharply criticized the Democratic-led Congress for its funding priorities in a speech Tuesday.

The president said Congress is like "a teenager with a new credit card" for wanting to spend $22 billion more than the White House would allow on nonwar-related funding bills.

Earlier in the day, Bush vetoed a spending bill for health and education measures prized by congressional Democrats, who fell just three votes short of winning a veto-proof majority for the $606 billion measure.

Meanwhile, Democrats said the president is ruining the economy by not agreeing to withdraw troops from Iraq.

The president said Democrats are "tax and spend" and want to spend $1,300 more than he does for every second of the next year and accused Democrats of trying to raise taxes in several other spending bills they are preparing to send him, which he said would hurt taxpayers and the economy.

"The price of these tax increases would not be paid in the halls of Congress," Bush argued, predicting such increases might lead to a "a greater likelihood of a slowdown across our economy."

Both the White House and the Democratic-led Congress do agree on spending money for defense.

In addition to the veto this morning, President Bush signed the annual spending bill for non-Iraq and Afghanistan defense funding.

At just shy of half a trillion dollars, defense funding accounts for roughly half the nearly trillion dollars the federal government will spend in 2008.