[Cicero]

He's not as big a spender as the media have made him out to be. He has had the bad luck to come into office just after the clinton bubble popped, and the economy was already tanking with the usual decrease in tax receipts.

But some of this spending, and the refusal to veto any spending bills, is simply bad politics. It not only rightly offends conservatives, but it give the liberal media ammunition to attack his tax cuts, which I believe most of us support. Democrats don't give him credit for spending on their favorite programs like AIDS and federal education aid. Far from it. He actually gets in trouble not only with conservatives but all the way across the board.

He should definitely can those idiotic proposals to increase spending on AIDS and the NEA, and start cutting back on some of the liberals' favorite programs like HUD and the Department of Education.

[mrsmith]

"some of this spending, and the refusal to veto any spending bills, is simply bad politics. "

Perhaps some of the politics was a choice whether to risk opposing the AWB renewal during the 2000 election or to pay enough pork to the congress to get them to not renew it.
Anyway that's the an obvious thing that strengthened the congress's hand with the president.

[ChiMark]

Bush just proposed a new HUD initiative. The Bush family is self destructive. He is not conservative. He will lose.