Bush, Democrats spar on spending, taxesPOSTED: 2:37 p.m. EST, January 3, 2007
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush and Democratic leaders in Congress traded jabs
over the budget Wednesday in what could be an indication of partisan fights to come.
In a White House statement and Wall Street Journal opinion piece a day before the
Democrat-controlled Congress is seated, the president asked lawmakers to give the
White House line-item veto power to control spending.
As he prepares to deal with a Democratically-controlled Congress for the first time,
Bush is also asking lawmakers to extend tax cuts.
-snip-"I know people don't like to pay taxes, but the fact of the matter is is that this
administration has produced a record deficit that is really threatening in long
measure our ability to make the kind of investments we need to keep America safe,"
Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-Louisiana, said in a Fox News interview.
"We hope that when the president says compromise, it means more than 'do it my way,'
which is what he's meant in the past," Sen. Charles Schumer, D-New York, said in a
statement.
-snip-