This is nice to see, but I can’t help but be cynical that only in the final year or so of his presidency does President Bush attempt to reign in spending. It seems he’s only doing it as a political move to paint the Dems in a certain way. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not defending the Dems here - they’re no doubt even worse over-spending pork-barrelers than the Repubs.
It’s just that if the Republican Congress of, say, 2006 would have sent Bush this same bill (and trust me, they have sent him many similar ones), he would have signed it. If we get a Republican president in 2009, I hope he will be an economic conservative from the start of his presidency, not just in the final 15 months.