The President drops the veto bomb:
President Bush would veto the new Iraq spending bill being developed by House Democrats because it includes unacceptable language restricting funding, White House press secretary Tony Snow said Wednesday morning.
Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, Snow said of the bill: “There are restrictions on funding and there are also some of the spending items that were mentioned in the first veto message that are still in the bill.”
What are the restrictions on funding?
House Democratic leaders are now putting together a proposal that would pay for the war through September but come with a different set of conditions: About half of the money would be dependent on Bush reporting to Congress this summer [ed note: late July] on the Iraqi government’s progress toward meeting security goals.
Following that report, Congress would have to vote separately to release the rest of the funds.
If the President is going to veto over that then we really are entering into some kind of wonderland. I don’t think he can hold his caucus together on this veto. I’m not saying the GOP would override his veto, but there will be a lot more defections.
