August 2, 2007
Posted: August 2nd, 2007 07:32 PM ET

"Only in Washington can $22 billion be called a 'very small difference,"' Bush said Thursday.

WASHINGTON (CNN) –President Bush accused the Democratic-led Congress of larding appropriations bills with unnecessary spending Thursday, highlighting the issue by breaking the number down to dollars per second.

Bush has been aggressively challenging House and Senate leaders to produce the appropriations bills needed to fund the U.S. government in 2008 before the current budget year ends Sept. 30. He has threatened to veto several of those bills if they contain spending he considers unnecessary - a step he never took when his Republican allies controlled Congress.

Bush is now objecting to an additional $22 billion in spending Democrats want to add to his proposed $2.9 trillion budget. The president told reporters after a Thursday morning Cabinet meeting that the Democratic proposals would add up to an additional $205 billion over five years.

"That $205 billion averages out to about $112 million per day, $4.7 million per hour, $78,000 per minute. Put another way, that's about $1,300 in higher spending, every second of every minute of every hour of every day of every year for the next five years," he said. "In fact, at that pace, Democrats in Congress would have spent an extra $300,000 since I began these remarks."

Bush's only veto of a spending bill to date came in May, when he killed a $124 billion emergency spending bill for the war in Iraq that would have set a March 2008 goal for the withdrawal of American combat troops. The war currently costs the Treasury about $10 billion a month, or $3,800 a second.

Senior administration officials said Monday that they expected a budget battle to intensify this week, with the president's chief political adviser, Karl Rove - whose portfolio includes budget, taxes, and spending - at the center of choreographing the administration's pitch, one of the officials said.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., shot back that Bush "must be in the Twilight Zone."

"Where was he in the first six years of his presidency, when the Republicans weren't passing appropriations bills?" Reid told reporters. "Did he say a word? No."

Reid said the difference between what Democrats are proposing and what Bush wants is about seven-tenths of 1 percent of a nearly $3 trillion budget for 2008. He said Bush is "trying to divert attention from his failed presidency" by picking a budget fight with Congress.

The president also said he is "disappointed" that none of the 13 appropriations bills have reached his desk before Congress goes on a month-long August recess. So far, 10 of the appropriations bills have passed the House and are still working their way through the Senate.

"The Democrats won last year's election fair and square, and now they control the calendar for bringing up bills in Congress," he said. "They need to pass each of these spending bills individually, on time and in a fiscally responsible way."

Democrats have blamed their delay on the Iraq war spending bill, which Bush submitted as a supplemental request, and the need to pass a continuing resolution to fund the government after the Republican-controlled Congress failed to pass all but two of the 13 annual appropriations bills in 2006.

Government operations for the 2007 budget year have been funded by a series of stopgap resolutions, the last of which Bush signed after Democrats took control of Congress.

– CNN's Ted Barrett and Matt Smith

Read more: Bush mocks House speaker on budget

Filed under: President Bush


Ron Nebraska   August 4th, 2007 10:15 pm ET

Tell me if I have this right.....spending unlimited amounts for wae is good. Spending any amount to benefit Amercan citizens is bad......right?

Bill Griemsmann, Hagerstown, MD   August 3rd, 2007 10:05 pm ET

Question for President Bush
What are our goals or objectives in Iraq?
How can we achieve thesegoals in 3 months when we couldn't in 4 years???

S Bengtson, Phoenix AZ   August 3rd, 2007 5:01 pm ET

Bush is a hypocritical, illiterate, deceptive, manipulator. Who has no ground to stand on when he complains about spending. What was the prediction for his oil war one trillion dollars and that doesn’t count the loss of invaluable american lives. After we impeach him and chenney I say charge them with crimes against humanity, we could make it stick.

TC Plainfield, IL   August 3rd, 2007 3:02 pm ET

We will be paying for President Bush's "borrow and spend" policy well into the next decade. What a great legacy that is! He wreaks havoc for eight years, spends $500 billion in Iraq and leaves us with the bill on his way out of office.

Anonymous   August 3rd, 2007 2:58 pm ET

We will still be paying for President Bush's "borrow and spend" policy well into the next decade. What a great legacy that is! He wrecks havoc for eight years, spends $500 billion on the war in Iraq and leaves us the bill on his way out of office.

Independent Voter, TN   August 3rd, 2007 1:04 pm ET

I would submit that both parties are guilty of pork barrel spending and are not good stewards of US tax dollars. Again, this is not a partisan issue. It is a national disgrace and Dems and Republicans are both to blame. So everybody get off your partisan high horses.

Ryan, New York, NY   August 3rd, 2007 11:38 am ET

At least in Iraq, we have a chance at a decent return.

Posted By RightyTighty : August 3, 2007 9:44 am
We do?? Please elaborate on what "decent return" you expect to see from Iraq.

Mike, Staatsburg, NY   August 3rd, 2007 11:04 am ET

Hey ReadBtwthlins,

Do you take your own partisan tomfoolery seriously? What happened to the DEMS balancing the budget? Are you serious?

Perhaps you slept through the first 6 years of over $1,000,000,000,000 in deficits Bush and the Republicans ran up? What are your thoughts on that, you transparent hack?

ReadBtwthlins   August 3rd, 2007 10:06 am ET

What happen to the balancing the budget promise? The dems could cut a few more billion and achieve that without raising taxes..., hmmm.

RightyTighty   August 3rd, 2007 9:44 am ET

Is it ethical to waste taxpayers money? Why isn't that in those pitiful ethics reforms that supposedly fulfilled a campaign promise??

And please stop crying about the money being spent in Iraq. Is there any doubt that the demorats would have spend every single dollar of that too if Bush had let them? At least in Iraq, we have a chance at a decent return.

Demorats like to talk about changes but never seem to get past blaming Republicans for the realities of the world. Their a do nothing lot as is evident by this current, worst ever ranked, Congress.

Robert Worthington, Garland Texas   August 3rd, 2007 9:13 am ET

What George Bush, in all his idiocy fails to understand is that much of that spending is for important domestic issues that he would much rather save to fight his failed and unjust war in Iraq. I am not necessarily happy with our Democratic Congress, but when you put them on a scale with Bush they are the lesser of two evils.

Tim Sullivan   August 3rd, 2007 9:09 am ET

At 150 BILLION per year, Iraq costs $4,800 PER SECOND!!!!

LTK Calhoun GA   August 3rd, 2007 9:07 am ET

Sit down and Shut up Bush. You war is expected to cost over 1 trillion American dollars. So please shut up...At least the money is spent on Americans.

Someone who cares   August 3rd, 2007 9:03 am ET

The will of President Bush is to do away with the middle class. I have seen first hand what his rich economic policies have done to the working poor and middle class. I run a small low income rental housing property and I have tenants who do not have heating gas in the winter because they cannot afford gas for their vehicle, their medicine, their monthly expenses, AND utilities. It is unfortunate, but the way it looks if the Repubs get their way, there will be 2 classes of people in our country, the rich and the poor, with no middle class. What is really sad is that the middle class supports the country, while the rich get breaks. We will have many more homeless people in our country if this trend continues. Our social programs in this Country are going to the dogs while we send all of our money and our young to die in a war without reason.

Sue, Midland, MI   August 3rd, 2007 9:02 am ET

Has anyone told him what his war costs per second? And who is that helping? Oh, right, his cronies who are "rebuilding" the country.
Another example of bait and switch. Is Karl Rove lurking in the speech writer's office?
I'm pretty "disappointed" myself-in the administration.

Andrew Brown, Gaithersburg MD   August 3rd, 2007 8:59 am ET

who said that our president isn't smart? I'm sure he did the calculations himself. you go George show em how sharp you are in adding things up. how many innocent iraqi died since you started with those remarks?

Pete, T.S. FL   August 3rd, 2007 8:48 am ET

He has no problem spending 2.5 billion dollars a week in Iraq, yet gets upset when the house wants to spend our tax money on America?

Oh, I get it, we have oversight at home!

“WE THE PEOPLE”

Caroline, Forestville, MI   August 3rd, 2007 8:25 am ET

And how much per second are we spending on YOUR war in Iraq, Mr. President?

IV, Dallas   August 3rd, 2007 8:24 am ET

Funny how Bush never used this "fiscal restraint" when it was his Republican congress doing all the pork-barrel spending. Where was Bush's veto threats when Sen. Ted Stevens' "Bridge to Nowhere" was on the table.

The Republicans wasted more taxpayer dollars on their pork-barreling than Democrats ever would. These Republicans are such laugable hypocrites.

Jim, Atlanta   August 3rd, 2007 8:19 am ET

So the clown who is responsible for the greatest increases in governmental spending since the 60's and the greatest budget deficits in history is now a fiscal conservative?

You have to be totally drunk from the Kool-Aid to believe a word that comes out of this guys mouth.

Black is white, up is down, big is small, it all makes sense in the magical Alice in Wonderland world of the decider.

Chris Culpeper, VA   August 3rd, 2007 8:15 am ET

What I find funny is that when King George and the Republicans controlled Congress spending was up to record highs and the national debt is exponentially increasing. Maybe Bush needs to relook his idea of tax cuts from a few years ago and for the richest 1% or whatever it was. It would be nice for politics to put ALL parties aside and simply do what is RIGHT rather than what the party "moral" says to do.

Bob Powell, Ohio   August 3rd, 2007 8:04 am ET

“Bush is now objecting to an additional $22 billion in spending Democrats want to add to his proposed $2.9 trillion budget. The president told reporters after a Thursday morning Cabinet meeting that the Democratic proposals would add up to an additional $205 billion over five years. ‘That $205 billion averages out to about $112 million per day, $4.7 million per hour, $78,000 per minute. Put another way, that’s about $1,300 in higher spending, every second of every minute of every hour of every day of every year for the next five years,’ he said. ‘In fact, at that pace, Democrats in Congress would have spent an extra $300,000 since I began these remarks’.”

Wait, I get it: It is OK to kill people with money. But not to help people” Another example of compassionate conservatism. Idiot.

Katie Atlanta, GA   August 3rd, 2007 7:38 am ET

What about the billions of dollars spent in Iraq when I'm paying an arm and a leg for an education, people here don't have healthcare, the public schools are horribly behind and under funded, and some people here are homeless and starving?
Does he really want a dollars per minute figure on his spending?

Jeffrey Bopp, Fort Worth, TX   August 3rd, 2007 7:36 am ET

Thanks for your fiscal responsibility, Mr. President. Now, with your amazing mathematical skills, can you please tell us how many dollars we've spent per second in Iraq?

Jay Tyne, Longwood, FL   August 3rd, 2007 7:16 am ET

It's laughable that a president who has run up the biggest spending deficit in US history would complain about a Democratic congress that is thinking of overspending by an amount that comes to .44% of his.

David, Hilo, HI   August 3rd, 2007 6:18 am ET

Mr. President,

Our great grandchildren will still be paying off your ludicrous war on terror. How many dollars – and lives – are ticking away every hour, minute, and second on that right now?

Oh silly me. Your keeper, Mr. Rove, wouldn't bother coaching you on those inconsequential numbers.

Ross, Mosul, Iraq   August 3rd, 2007 3:27 am ET

Everyone blames the Democrats that they are not making porgress. Hello America...WAKE-UP! This is clear as mud! If you look at the bills passed many of them easily make it through the House because of the Democrats majority. It seems like the problem is in the Senate because of the Republicans staling and the President Vetoing every bill. Take minimum wage for example...look at the votes!!! Repulicans shot it down. Vote the rest of the Bums OUT!!! 22 Seats in the Senate are up for grabs with the Republicans. Do the right thing and vote them out! Let's see if the Dems can really change us in the right direction; we should give them a fair chance. Let's not even touch upon immigration!

If they fail, maybe independent would be the way to go!

Myron, Honolulu, HI   August 3rd, 2007 3:07 am ET

Wow Bush is really trying to save the taxpayers money complaining about an “excess” spending of 0.75% of his budget.
Wow why invest in America when we can go broke in Iraq?
On the other hand, if every American got wounded in Iraq we wouldn’t need national health care, we could all just go to the VA.

Evan Tribley Columbus, OH   August 3rd, 2007 2:10 am ET

Mr. Bush, where was your oversight during the last few Congressional sessions?

You are the President and can probably find my phone number. Give me a call and I will blow your mind with how much money we have already wasted since you came into office. You may be so shocked you won't be able to continue.

If you don't have time, start out by checking our national debt since you came into office. Or better yet our debt to foreign investors. Even more amazing would be to reminisce about the projected ten year $5.6 trillion dollar surplus we were headed towards when you took office. Gosh, that could have paid off a large portion of our national debt.

I've changed my mind, you might just want to continue to finish out your presidency with your eyes closed. If you open them, you might not be able to live with what has happened under your watch.

Thomas Edwards, Zurich, Switzerland   August 3rd, 2007 2:10 am ET

Here's some math back at Mr. Bush: At 12 billion per MONTH in Iraq, our tax dollars are being spent at a rate of $40,000,000/day/mo, $1,666,667/hr/day/mo, and $27,778/min/hr/day/mo. I'll let you multiply it out for the remaining 15 months he'll still be in office.

Greg, Columbus, OH   August 3rd, 2007 1:44 am ET

This is horribly and pathetically dishonest on Bush's part, considering the massive amounts of pork that made it into spending bills from 2000-2006.

Carl, Dallas, TX   August 3rd, 2007 1:39 am ET

So it's ok to yell at Bush non stop, but it's not ok if he does it back to them..

I'm sorry, but explain it to me...

Frank   August 3rd, 2007 1:22 am ET

This is the first genuinely intelligent thing I've heard this man say in six years and counting. Its about time.

Boss Hogg   August 3rd, 2007 12:46 am ET

See what happens George when you lose the conservative vote, you have to deal with moonbats! You should have destroyed these socialists instead of trying to deal with them years ago, unfortunately, your kindness was your weak point. Hope you have learned your lesson.

jeff, austin texas   August 3rd, 2007 12:20 am ET

isn't this the guy who bellows about "big government" yet by singing his name in ink to the 6 largest annual governmental budgets presented by his own party is actually the all time "big government" king in the world's recorded history? nice.

jenifer, madison, wi   August 3rd, 2007 12:12 am ET

Seven years later –

– the US massively in debt (much of it to Communist China),

– needlessly mired in a nearly $4000-per-second civil war in a foreign country

– a budget surplus GONE and a debt that will cripple our future generations

– millions of Americans un- or under-insured

– year after year of pork-suffused Republican budgets passed without a peep of protest

– thousands of well-paying jobs lost overseas and replaced by low-paying ones

– a collapsing housing market

– an astonishing increase in the difference between a middle-class income and those at the upper-end of the spectrum

– a failing public education system

– the environment and the American middle-class lifestyle under dire threat from corporate greed....

and NOW the president decides to consider the financial aspects?!?!

One thing this administration knows very well, is how to terrify the populace. I guess the, "We'll be attacked by terrorists if you don't do as I say without question!" tactic is one the back burner for this week. Instead, we'll get the dire predictions of financial ruin if Bush isn't given sole governing power.

MCD, San Francisco, CA   August 3rd, 2007 12:07 am ET

The latest estimate for the Iraq war is that it could cost as much as one trillion dollars!!!

If he wants to save money... end the war.

Patti B, Cooper City, FL   August 2nd, 2007 11:22 pm ET

Just when I think I could not possibly be any more disgusted by the man we call our president, he says something as incredibly obnoxious as this.

Gene Schott, Albert Lea MN   August 2nd, 2007 11:15 pm ET

I was watching this press conference this morning because it was supposed to be about the tragedy in my beloved state of Minnesota. Well, our rube of a president spews out his patheitc soundbites for about 30 seconds before he gets to the real reason for the press conference....more political bashing of the Congress. Well Mr. Bush, you have reached a new low....you took the tragedy of the collapse of I35 and used it to your political advantage. I don't know how you sleep at night. You should be ashamed of yourself.

Jeremy,   August 2nd, 2007 11:11 pm ET

Seriously, The republican congress was guilty of the same crimes, and now Bush decides to get all holy.
This is just political jabs,

Steven in Charleston, SC   August 2nd, 2007 11:11 pm ET

The audacity of our President kills me. He cuts the taxes on the richest one percent of the nation, turns a blind eye to hundreds of billions of dollars of corporate profits moving offshore where they are shielded from taxation, spends money like a drunken sailor on shore leave on a war we have no business fighting, and prohibits medicare from negotiating prices with the drug companies causing us to needlessly spend tens of billions of taxpayer dollars, and he calls the DEMOCRATS fiscally irresponsible?!? The only thing more pathetic than his double-talk are the people who are buying it.

Will, Oklahoma City, OK   August 2nd, 2007 10:34 pm ET

Are you kidding me?

Anonymous, Calif.   August 2nd, 2007 10:21 pm ET

President Bush is a fraud and is in no position to be complaining about spending more money.

He doesn't even account for the massive amount of spending in the war in Iraq in the budget.

Nor does he reveal how he personally is to blame for wasteful government spending creating another federal government agency....DHS, to oversee a labrynth of redundant agencies already doing the same thing.

Not to mention how he personally authorized the domestic spying prorgram and data mining records of average Americans that aren't even remotely connected to any form of a threat to security.

Or how about No Child Left Behind which forced state to spend billions to comply to ambigious regulations with no real way to fund the actual costs.

Jeff Spangler, Arlington, VA   August 2nd, 2007 9:23 pm ET

The Shrub didn't actually do the math, and he doesn't understand it.

Adam Rettberg, Chicago, IL   August 2nd, 2007 9:20 pm ET

Still a bargain compared to what Iraq costs per second in money and lives.

John, Ca.   August 2nd, 2007 8:52 pm ET

Are you kidding me?!

This from a lame duck, who inherited a surplus and has run hundreds of billion dollar deficits ever since he took office!

With a party who only passed one appropriations bill before it recessed for the year last year, and the Democrats had to clean up there mess when they took over Congress!

Did I read this blatant hypocrisy wrong?

Why isn't this blatant hypocrisy the lead story here???

Has this man no memory, and no shame?

bprosserme   August 2nd, 2007 8:49 pm ET

Democrats want transparency in their spending, WRONG. DEMOCRATS ARE THEIVES STEALING FROM YOUR POCKET BOOK.

Jack, Omaha, NE   August 2nd, 2007 8:49 pm ET

And yet he had zero problem and zero vetos during 6 years of republican pork bills when the cost every second of every minute of every hour of every day of every year for the next fifty years was many times higher than the bills coming out of congress today.

He needs to save his energy for executive privilege excitement, not seven-tenths of 1 percent of a budget.

The Democrats are more fiscally responsible. How can conservatives think that any Republican candidate besides Ron Paul is fiscally conservative? RG, MR, and JM have all blow through money like a fish breathing water. How can anyone believe that they would suddenly learn to be fiscally conservative once in office?

Lucy, Young Harris, GA   August 2nd, 2007 8:46 pm ET

I heard President Bush's 30 second remarks about the Minneapolis bridge tragedy, followed by the diatribe about the Democrats and spending. I was saddened by his turning a tragedy into a political hatchet speech. America deserves better.

Patrick, Denver Colorado   August 2nd, 2007 8:27 pm ET

Good step in the right direction to eliminate pork, don't cave in Bush!

Also as the article points out why didn’t he do this before? It may be a late start but as long as he's trying to cut down on unnecessary spending he's got my support.

Jim, Washington DC   August 2nd, 2007 8:23 pm ET

How cute, GWB just discovered the wonders of math. Soon comes history, followed by psychology and maybe even grammar.

RA Las Vegas, Nv   August 2nd, 2007 8:11 pm ET

Right-on G.W. Bush, we already know you have overly spent in your term, and it is not over with yet! But; where in the hell do these damn democrats think the will come up with all this additional cash? I sure hope they will start digging it out of their own pockets. The American tax paying citizens pockets are empty. Just like our political parties and all of there empty promises.

James T, San Francisco CA   August 2nd, 2007 8:11 pm ET

Any person who has been as irresponsible as Bush has been with spending money, has no authority to decide what is "unnecessary."

Jon, San Diego CA   August 2nd, 2007 8:10 pm ET

You have got to be kidding me! As if Bush is in any position to criticize anyone on spending habits. Haha.

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