I got this from Rod Dreher's website. Truly scary...

Juan Williams, who is brilliant, interviewed the President. Here is the transcript.

Most of the interview was fine, provided you can forgive some slight missteps in speech. One thing, though caught my eye:

MR. WILLIAMS: Will the budget be balanced through spending restraint or taxes?

PRESIDENT BUSH: The budget is going to be balanced by keeping taxes low. In other words, we're not going to raise taxes. And as a result of keeping taxes low, the economy is doing just fine, and when the economy is doing well, it yields a certain level of tax revenues that we can live with. And then making sure that we constrain federal spending, and you do that by setting priorities. And our priority has got to be this global war on terror and supporting our troops, and protecting the homeland, and that is what our budget will say, and we can balance the budget within five years. And that is going to be – that is good for the country. And in so doing, we are dealing with the short-term deficits, but we have also got to deal with the long-term deficits inherent in, for example, programs like Social Security and Medicare.

MR. WILLIAMS: So, some people would say, well, if you believe in spending restraint, why haven't you vetoed one bill, you know, one appropriations bill?

PRESIDENT BUSH: Because the United States Congress that was controlled by Republicans exercised spending restraint. Now, I didn't particularly like – the size of the pie was what I requested. It's some of the pieces of the pie that I didn't particularly care for, but that is why the president needs a line-item veto, and that is why Congress has got to reform the earmark process. What the American people need to understand is that sometimes special projects get put into bills without ever having seen the light of the day. In other words, they don't get voted on; they just show up, and we need transparency in the earmark process, and expose the process to hearings and votes so that the American people will know that any project was fully heard on the floor of the House and the Senate.

Since 1980, the GOP has controlled either the White House or Congress or both for all but two years. Government has quadrupled since then. There has been no bigger spender than the US government since 9/11, and GW has a big role in that.

To quote Dreher..."In other words, the record levels of spending engaged in by the GOP Congress was actually spending restraint, except when it wasn't, and that was Congress's fault for being so sneaky."

As for the line-item veto, the GOP gave that one to Clinton ten years ago. Funny thing about that Constitution, though, is that a line-item veto isn't in there! Har har har.