More Hypocrisy: Bush Budget Earmarks

As if you are shocked, Bush is a hypocrite again. Standing on his wobbly soapbox, threatening to veto bills with earmarks, the rope-a-dope-n-chief has plenty of his own earmarks in the 2009 budget he sent to Congress last week. How about $12 million for a parachute repair shop at the American air base in Aviano, Italy? Now there's an important expenditure. Or $6.5 million for research in Wyoming on the “fundamental properties of asphalt.” Need-to-know more about asphalt, indeed! There's more: The president requested $125,000 for a new rapid bus line on Troost Avenue in Kansas City, Mo., and $11 million for bus-only lanes along parts of Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles. And $800,000 for the Neosho National Fish Hatchery in Missouri.

When did a presidential budget become a pork barrel for constituents and party donors? When? Oh, never mind, foolish me thinking that presidential actions ought not involve politics.