Bush’s detached-from-reality radio address

July 7, 2007

The president decided to lambaste the Democratic congressional majority this morning in his weekly radio address, accusing lawmakers of failing to do their duty when it comes to annual spending bills.

“Democrats in Congress are also behind schedule passing the individual spending bills needed to keep the Federal government running. At their current pace, I will not see a single one of the 12 must-pass bills before Congress leaves Washington for the month-long August recess. The fiscal year ends September 30th. By failing to do the work necessary to pass these important bills by the end of the fiscal year, Democrats are failing in their responsibility to make tough decisions and spend the people’s money wisely.

This moment is a test. Under our Constitution, Congress holds the power of the purse. Democratic leaders are in control of Congress. They set the schedule for when bills are considered. They determine when votes are held. Democrats have a chance to prove they are for open and transparent government by working to complete each spending bill independently and on time.”

Yes, it’s outrageous when Congress fails to pass each spending bill on time, isn’t it? Why, it seems like just last year that a Republican House, Republican Senate, and Republican White House were so dysfunctional, that they failed to pass hardly any of the necessary spending bills. Oh wait, that was just last year.

Republicans intend to conclude the 109th Congress this week and leave Democrats stuck with the tab in the form of unfinished spending bills as the days of Republican rule draw to a close on Capitol Hill.

Congressional leaders said election losses had sapped Republican enthusiasm for trying to finish nine spending measures that were due Oct. 1. Congress will instead pass a stopgap measure to keep the government running until mid-February, leaving the fiscal tangle for the new Democratic majority to sort out next year.

Following Bush’s reasoning, Republicans failed in their responsibility to make tough decisions and spend the people’s money wisely. I wonder why he didn’t complain about this a year ago?

Apparently, all of this is part of a new White House meme: congressional Dems aren’t passing enough bills for Bush’s satisfaction.

The White House has said the failure of a broad immigration overhaul was proof that Democratic-controlled Capitol Hill cannot take on major issues. “We saw this with immigration, and we’re seeing it with some other issues where Congress is having an inability to take on major challenges,” said spokesman Tony Fratto.

Let’s unpack this a bit.

First, the immigration bill failed because the president’s party splintered and the president’s base killed the legislation. Fratto pointing the finger at “Congress” is silly; lame-duck Bush couldn’t even rally half of his own Senate caucus.

Second, Democrats aren’t struggling to “take on major challenges”; they’re struggling to overcome Republican obstructionism. If the Bush gang doesn’t like it, they should call McConnell’s office and tell the GOP to start allowing up-or-down votes.

Third, the White House has a lot of nerve whining to reporters about Dems’ agenda. How many “major challenges” has Bush tackled in his second term? How many pieces of the president’s agenda have become law? Does the White House even have a policy agenda anymore?

These guys are desperate, and they don’t wear it well.

Post Script: The AP headline on the story on Bush’s radio address reads, “Bush rips Democratic lawmakers’ failures.” Apparently, the AP was short on time, so the editors just let Karl Rove write the headline for them.

Bush’s detached-from-reality radio address

Groovy, man

  • “Bush rips Democratic lawmakers’ failures.” Apparently, the AP was short on time, so the editors just let Karl Rove write the headline for them.

    Ha, cripes

  • That is what is so upsetting. The WH has the micrpphone. People rarely hear the other side of the story.

    “Bush rips Democratic lawmakers’ failures.” …

    Bush says nothing about Senate Republican obstructionism blocking all bills.

    Bush fails to advance any policy as his base kills his immigration bill.
    Your whole article should be running side by side with transcripts of Bush’s radio address, but the public at large never hears this side so once again Bush remains unaccountable.

  • Sheesh, this is a set-up I’m telling you.This is a pre-cursor to a soon to come larger narrative about future investigative hearings into the WHs malfeasance. The Scooter commutation hearing, the ongoing DoJ investigation, the censure vote etc. They’ll say something like Dems are so busy chasing imaginary things down rabbit holes they can’t pass the budget, etc.

    And if the slip-knot on this hangman’s loose won’t catch, Karl has another 50,000 memes to try out. The actual truth and you know facts do not matter at all. They just need something to bleat about.

    Contrary to the Reps though, the Dems are actually capable of multi-tasking. They can both walk through the spending bills and chew the gum of investigations.

    H

  • I was a bit disappointed in the AP story as Jennifer Loven often does much better. (I assume she didn’t write the headline). Loven has often written stories for AP in which she did go beyond reporting what Bush said to demonstrate the dishonesty in his statements. Of course she has to walk a narrow line in writing such stories between reporting and giving her own opinions.

  • Comment #7 Of course she has to walk a narrow line in writing such stories between reporting and giving her own opinions

    –> Republicans would consider facts as mere opinions, that much is true. However, if Jennifer was actually reporting what Bush said, and add a fact check, that is not an opinion. That would be considered TRUE journalism.

  • The White House has said the failure of a broad immigration overhaul was proof that Democratic-controlled Capitol Hill cannot take on major issues.

    Fine, every Democrat in Congress should thank Frat-boy for giving them credit.

    Regarding the headline, of late I tend to read anything* that starts with “Bush [verb] … ” as code for “Here’s another stupid thing the arsehole did,” because such articles tend to be more than a wrote repetition of talking points:

    “Democratic leaders say they are behind because an emergency spending measure funding the war in Iraq came first. They also had to pass an omnibus measure cleaning up last year’s appropriations mess. Then, the Republicans who then controlled Congress failed to pass into law a single spending bill for domestic agencies save the Homeland Security Department — a situation that brought little complaint from Bush.”

    tAiO

    *Unless we’re talking about the Washington Times, which we’re not because I don’t read it.

  • Bush may be jabbering, but thankfully, the majority of the public is no longer tuned into the white noise eminating from the ‘decider guy’. Still, it does piss one off if one stops to actually listen to his b.s..

  • Has anyone else noticed a that the republican noise machine has ratcheted up a notch lately? Suddenly, everyone we’re fighting in Iraq is al Q. Military brass are turning up with pleas not to cut funding or withdraw troops in September — along with more reports of “progress” despite continued or rising violence Incidents in the UK have turned our TV news into “Be More Afraid.” China is poisioning us. National health care is a breeding ground for terrorists. Right on cue, Bush comes out with another attack in his ongoing war to demonize Congress.

    A cynic might think someone is gearing up another disinformation campaign to block any efforts to get the troops out of Iraq come September.

  • The White House is taking advantage of the deafening silence from the Congressional Democrats about Republican obstructionism. I realize a lot of folks are busy arranging hearings, but why is it the last time I heard about a ‘filibuster’ was before the election? Democrats should have been loudly and repeatedly building a public perception of Republicans as obstructionists, both legislatively and legally. They haven’t.

    The thing that the Bushistas understand is that, in the current media environment, the media will report utter nonsense as reality, and if you have not previously provided the media with a narrative, one will be provided for you. One you probably won’t like.

  • “How many ‘major challenges’ has Bush tackled in his second term?”

    It does seem that after his Social Security fiasco, Bush decided tyring to be a real president was too much work, and decided to just ride out the rest of his term.

  • biggerbox at 12 hits it dead on. Dems to this day still have not learned how to play the game, how to message effectively, how to beat the R’s to the punch. as a result, we have been unable to leverage much from our 2006 victories, and the public sees our leaders as negatively as theirs.

    maybe i’m just having a really pessimistic week, but it is critical to remember that our CBR community is not the norm. we can hear Bush’s address and find it appallingly transparent in its hypocrisy. the other 99.9% of the country hears it an believes it. i mean, look at the simple facts (most peoples’ favorite kind): Dems control Congress. Few bills have passed both chambers. Ergo Dem control is ineffective. that is a very, very easy story to sell no matter how incomplete and inaccurate it is – indeed, the incompleteness is why it is easier to sell than the much more complicated truth. most people have not paid enough attention over a long enough period of time to know, recall, or even care what happened last Congress or the Congresses before that.

    we’re right on the issues. we’ve won the elections. but we still don’t understand politics to save our asses. sadly when we lose, the country does as well.

  • Paging Howard Dean, paging Howard Dean.

    As beep52, biggerbox, zeitgeist, and others point out, the Democrats need to find a megaphone and use it!

  • Look, this is easy to understand, and Bush’s lies in his address are the key. They can’t let the Democratic Majority seem competent, got it? The Rs have a majority to win back in 18 months and they were so crappy in Congress that all the Dems have to do is not burn the place down and they’ll keep their majority in 2008.

    The WH and Congressional republicans are working together on this. The Republican minority causes the obstruction, and the WH uses their big microphone to blame the Democrats for it. All they can do for 2008 is make the Dems look worse. It’s all they’ve got, and they’re on their way.

  • Speaking of the press:

    The far right editorial board of my local rag defended Bush’s commutation of Libby’s sentence with an editorial entitled “Commuting Libby’s sentence no big deal”, which gives you an indication of where it was headed. (My blood was already boiling at that point, but I wasn’t surprised.)

    The first paragraph reads “To judge by the reactions of Sen. Reid and Rep. Nancy Pelosi (notice they didn’t give her the honor of calling her Speaker of the House) you’d think President Bush had sold the Declaration of Independence to Halliburton this week”. Gosh, the right really does know how to call it, don’t they? Only I’d say Bush sold the Constitution, but I digress…

    The editorial continues by, of course, bringing up the Clinton-did-it-too argument. Then to make themselves appear bipartisan, they also mention that Bush 41, Reagan and Carter also issued pardons.

    Then they bring up how poor Scooter hasn’t gotten off scott free – how his career is “toast” (clearly a naive thought), that he’s run up huge legal bills (they didn’t mention the legal fund set up by his rich pals), his fine and probation (ooooh, big whoop).

    They did actually mention that Bush41 shouldn’t have pardoned the Iran Contra criminals, but failed to note the similarity to Bush43’s commutation of Libby: that both were done to protect criminal acts by the Bush’s themselves.

    The editorial board saved it’s worst for last, beginning by saying that Bush should not pardon Scooter since he did lie under oath, but then said this: Libby lied under oath “during the investigation of a scandal that turned out to be a big nothing-burger.”

    Get that, folks. The editorial board of my local rag thinks that TREASON is nothing much.

    These idiots got a scathing letter from me. Let’s see if they print it.

  • The fiscal year ends September 30th. — Shrubs

    Dat so? Well then… there’ll be plenty of time to decide how to spend the money. *After* the Congress has received the bit of propaganda the generals are expected to deliver in early Sept.. Because, y’know, it’ll cost a whole lot less to shut the shop on the Rape of Iraq and bring the troops home than it does to keep them there. Consequently, there’ll be more money to spend on other things.

    That’s how budgets are balanced; you take stock of what you have in hand, then prioritize between “the need” and “the want”. You don’t borrow and borrow and borrow, indefinitely, for “the want” and pass “supplementary” “emergency” bills on a regular basis.

  • Oh, sorry, I forgot this, in reaction to Bush’s comments:

    Silly me, I thought the president was supposed to be the president of ALL Americans, not just those in his own party. Especially this “uniter, not divider” guy.

    Excuse me, I’m feeling ill.

  • Look folks, bottom line is this. The D’s team is down below 25% in approval ratings. This Congress is starting to become a drag on the Presidential level approval ratings.

    We Republicans always knew that you people couldn’t help yourselves and would overreach, especially when it came time for the Congressmen to pay back the Left Wing and start the hearings. What happened was rather simple: “oversight” became a substitute for substantive legislation.

    The problem for Democrats is that people aren’t as stupid as Democrats think they are.

    Rudy or Fred will be able to wrap “Do Nothing Congress” around Hillary’s neck just like Truman did to Tom Dewey. The last thing the Clintons wanted was for both houses to go Democratic.

    But that’s what happened.

  • Hey, fiscal bills are hard work. Considering which bribes can safely be ignored and which must produce results is hard enough, but dealing with the grey areas where powerful sugar daddies contend is a nightmare for even the most skilled courtesans.

  • Under our Constitution, Congress holds the power of the purse.

    Under whose Constitution, King George? Yours, or the People’s?

  • My Fellow Americans,

    The Democrats ignored mounting evidence of an attack on our country and went on vacation rather than protect the country.

    The Democrats have not captured the terrorist which attacked our country in the most deadly attack since Pearl Harbor.

    The Democrats have lied this country into war with the wrong opponent and then have the gaul to LOSE the war.

    The Democrats have obstructed an investigation into their own actions outing a CIA agent.

    The Democrats have spiraled the country into debt up to it’s eyeballs while giving most of this ill gotten loot to their cronies.

    The Democrats have broken the military in a stupid war by ignoring the advice of the generals and allowing our real enemies to begin dominating the world.

    The Democrats have ignored the LAWS and the Constitution and repeatedly spied on Americans going about their own business.

    I’d say we’d better impeach those blankety blank Dems that are running the country!

  • Look folks, bottom line is this. The D’s team is down below 25% in approval ratings. This Congress is starting to become a drag on the Presidential level approval ratings. — section9, @22

    Thanks for the laugh (the second sentence). Re the first sentence: it’s the *Congress* that’s got low ratings, not “the Dem team”. In polls which specifically asked about the two parties’ performance, the Dems got a decent-enough ratings (considering people’s natural distaste for *all* politicians); it’s the Rethugs, who dragged down the total score.

    OT and out of sheer curiosity… is the “section” a C or a vivi?

  • Two things on this tactic the Repubs showed in Bush’s radio address.

    A.) The Dems are sooooo busy on all of this silly oversight stuff that nothing is getting done. Therefore, the Dems should all this oversight and investigation and get on with “the People’s business.”

    B.) They’re taking a page from the David Broder/ David Ignatius playbook of “can’t the Dems just get along with their collegues on the other side of the aisle” and just capitulate on alll the things the “reasonable and serious” Repubs want to do instead?

    And if Republicans, especially in the Senate hadn’t been so damn obstructionist, imagine how many of the bill that would have been passed would have met Georgie’s litle veto pen. Yes, it’s shallow stupid and emminently wrong but what about the Bushies isn’t?

    • Comments are closed.