The Art of Politics

My Way or The Highway

Bush threatens veto, to declare himself King of the Road...

Both the House and Senate have passed new Highway bills far in excess of the $256 billion sought by the White House - the House version weighs in at a portly $275 billion, the Senate version at a morbidly obese $318 million. The President has clearly indicated his willingness to veto a measure that exceeds his threshold.

It sounds amazing, but President Bush has NOT used a veto. Not once.

What was seen in early 2001 as likely to be a weak presidency has in fact turned into one of the most uniformly effective presidential terms in history. This doesn't involve the quality of policy positions, but rather the results sought by the White House, and their inevitable outcomes. From Medicare, tax cuts, homeland security, defense spending, partial birth abortion, when it comes to legislation, this White House gets what this White House wants.

Now, as the election year hits stride, the highway bill appears as a looming showdown over fiscal policy. In an era of large deficits, the Republicans are setting up a confrontation that will cast George Bush in the role of fiscal guardian, fighting to control spending with a spendthrift Congress. And it's politically genius.

What's more, the Democrats are being insanely complicit.

The Democrats are in the rare position of being able to seize the spending high ground - a natural result of being out of power at all levels of government. It's foolish for them to let Bush cast himself as protector of the red side of the ledger. But I've seen no willingness to prevent - nor even recognition of - the coming spectacle.

Bush's first veto, holding the line on spending, in an election where the Democrats want to talk about the budget deficit. It's political genius on the part of Republicans if they can - and the Democrats let them - carry it off.

Posted by MEC2 at April 1, 2004 09:32 AM