BUSH SAYS CONGRESS IS WASTING TIME
By Brian Knowlton

International Herald Tribune, France
Oct 30 2007

WASHINGTON: President George W. Bush lashed out at Congress Tuesday,
the third time he has done so in two weeks, this time saying the House
had wasted time on "a constant string of investigations" and the Senate
had similarly wasted its efforts by trying to rein in the Iraq war. Its
failure to send a single annual appropriations bill to his desk,
he said, amounted to "the worst record for a Congress in 20 years."

"Congress is not getting its work done," the president said in brief
remarks from the North Portico of the White House.

He urged Congress to act on defense-funding legislation and on a
compromise on the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, or S-CHIP.

As he spoke, Bush was flanked by two senior Republicans, Representative
John Boehner of Ohio, the minority leader, and Representative Roy
Blunt of Missouri, the minority whip.

The three had emerged from a meeting in the East Room of the House
Republican Conference, and perhaps reflecting the campaign season
under way, the president’s words took on a partisan edge.

According to The Associated Press, Rep. Rahm Emanuel, chairman of
the House Democratic Caucus, responded by saying: "President Bush’s
rally this morning reminds us that congressional Republicans remain
ready and willing to rubber-stamp the Bush agenda: no to children’s
health care; no to a new direction in Iraq; and no to investing in
America’s future."

Republicans have chafed amid the nearly continuous investigations,
many by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform,
which that panel’s Democratic leadership describes as accountability.

Referring to the current congressional session, Bush said: "We’re
near the end of the year, and there really isn’t much to show for it.

The House of Representatives has wasted valuable time on a constant
stream of investigations, and the Senate has wasted valuable time on
an endless series of failed votes to pull our troops out of Iraq."

Members of the Democratic-led Congress, he added, hadn’t "seen a bill
they could not solve without shoving a tax hike into it."

"Proposed spending is skyrocketing under their leadership," he said.

But Democrats, and some Republicans, have regularly criticized the
administration for spending increases since Bush came to office.

The president again criticized Democrats over the S-CHIP bill, saying
the Senate had taken up a second version of the legislation passed by
the House "despite knowing it does not have a chance of becoming law."

While the president vetoed the first version, saying it spent too
much money and covered not just the poor children it is intended to
help but some middle-class children and adults, he said this version
would spend even more.

"After going alone and going nowhere, Congress should instead work
with the administration on a bill that puts poor children first,"
he said. "We want to sit down in good faith and come up with a bill
that is responsible."

Bush was also sharply critical of a reported plan by congressional
leaders to combine the Defense Department appropriations bill with
bills for domestic departments.

"It’s hard to imagine a more cynical political strategy than trying to
hold hostage funding for our troops in combat and our wounded warriors
in order to extract $11 billion in additional social spending,"
he said.

The president had used scathing language about the Democratic majority
during an Oct. 17 news conference, saying Congress was dragging its
feet on a range of important legislation while spending time debating
whether the deaths of more than a million Armenians in the early 20th
century amounted to a genocide at Turkish hands.

The president had continued his denunciations of Congress last Friday,
saying its leaders had also failed to act yet to confirm Michael
Mukasey as attorney general, despite Democrats’ complaints about
a lack of leadership at the Justice Department. "This is not what
congressional leaders promised when they took control of Congress
earlier this year," he said then.