NOW he says this!

Bush: Congress must limit pork spending

WASHINGTON - President Bush said Wednesday he'll submit a proposal to balance the budget in five years and exhorted Congress to "end the dead of night process" of quietly tucking expensive pet projects into spending bills.

"This budget will restrain spending while setting priorities," Bush in a statement he delivered in the Rose Garden after meeting with his Cabinet at the White House.

"It will address the most urgent needs of our nation, in particular the need to protect ourselves from radicals and terrorists, the need to win the war on terror, the need to maintain a strong national defense, and the need to keep this economy growing by making tax relief permanent," Bush said of the budget proposal that he will soon send to Capitol Hill.

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"If the Congress chooses to pass bills that are simply political statements, they will have chosen stalemate," Bush wrote. "If a different approach is taken, the next two years can be fruitful ones for our nation. We can show the American people that Republicans and Democrats can come together to find ways to help make America a more secure, prosperous and hopeful society."

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The president's critics argue that the White House is using sleight of hand when boasting about the deficit.

Bush can rightly state that he has fulfilled his 2004 campaign pledge to cut the deficit in half by the time he leaves office. In fact, he can say he has done it three years early. But in making that claim, the president is using the administration's original forecast of what the 2004 deficit was expected to be — not what it actually turned out to be.

Back when Bush made his promise, the administration was predicting that the 2004 deficit would be $521 billion. That prediction turned out to be off by $100 billion. To achieve the feat of slicing the actual 2004 deficit number in half, the federal deficit Bush was highlighting would have to have dropped to $206 billion, not $247.7 billion.

The long-term deficit picture remains bleak.
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Funny that bush never brought this up while the repugs were in power and padding more pork than any number of Dems could even imagine. And, of course, the Dems have already pledged to cut back on the pork, so he is simply trying to steal their ideas as his own. On top of that, he is obviously making demands that he knows the Dems don't agree with and then says that the Dems have to compromise, not him.

That's really reaching across the aisles!

And, of course, there has to be some lies re: the deficit or it wouldn't be bush!