Bush’s Request for Wars Increases to $196 Billion

At the very point in time when Bush has used his veto to prevent the SCHIP programme which would cost $35 billion, he has submitted a request to Congress for $196 billion to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and other national security programs.

Now, I know that many Republicans got themselves incensed over the SCHIP programme and how it was going to be paid for, so I wonder how many of them will raise the question of how Bush is going to pay for this $196 billion?

And it's interesting that Bush, the man who wants to export democracy throughout the world, is nowhere near the democratic ideal when it comes to his priorities and those of the American people.

The vast majority of Americans support the SCHIP programme:

In the nationwide poll conducted by a bipartisan team of pollsters, Lake Research Partners and American Viewpoint, 91 percent of Americans said that they want Congress to help states cover more uninsured children and the vast majority also supported covering uninsured parents in low-income working families. Voter support for SCHIP crosses party lines, according to the poll results.

And yet Bush decides to veto the SCHIP programme whilst ploughing money into his wars which the public does not approve of:

"Do you approve or disapprove of the way George W. Bush is handling the situation with Iraq?"

Approve 26% Disapprove 67% Unsure 7%

It's a very strange advert for the democratic ideal when the President always seems to be doing the precise opposite of what the public desires.

Representative David R. Obey, Democratic of Wisconsin, the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, criticized Mr. Bush for pushing the extra financing even as the president attacked Democrats as spendthrifts.

“It’s amazing to me that the president expects to be taken seriously when he says we cannot afford $20 billion in investments in education, health, law enforcement and science, which will make this country stronger over the long term,” Mr. Obey said in a statement.

“But he doesn’t blink an eye at asking to borrow $200 billion for a policy in Iraq that leaves us six months from now exactly where we were six months ago.”

Nancy Pelosi has pointed out that, for the cost of a mere forty days of the Iraq war, 10 million American children could be given health coverage for a year.

It shows where Bush's priorities lie, and it also shows how his priorities are the exact opposite of those of the American people.

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Tags: Bush, war funding, $196 billion, Afghanistan, Iraq, SCHIP, Pelosi