George W. Bush has made more than
130 veto threats and never followed through on one of them. You could say we're getting a wee bit immune to them, but the latest veto threat today is even emptier and more ludicrous than usual.
From AP:
Bush Vows Veto On Spending Bills
WASHINGTON, April 7, 2006
(AP) President Bush said Friday he would use his power to veto spending bills if Congress does not cut the federal budget as he has asked.
Ah ... Mr. Bush? There is no bill on the table to threaten to veto because your party is in such disarray it can't come up with one:
AP -- The collapse of a $2.8 trillion House GOP budget blueprint threatens to send Republicans into the fall election season with deficits on the rise and no plan in place to contain them.
Feuds among rival Republican factions led House GOP leaders to pull the measure from the floor Thursday, while separate talks aimed at extending President Bush's tax cuts for capital gains and dividends stalled. That sent lawmakers home for a two-week recess with few accomplishments to deliver to their constituents.
I guess Bush apologists could interpret his veto talk today as a pre-emptive empty threat against anything the president disagrees with once Congress simmers down with the Hatfield-McCoy GOP shenanigans and actually has ... you know ... a budget to talk about.
But for right now, the president seems to be simply underscoring the hollowness of his swagger and the stupidity of taking him at his word. About anything, at this point.