"Poor Children First"

That's what Bush said was his reason for vetoing SCHIP. And hey, no surprise, the SCHIP bill he vetoed does put poor children first, while his administration's policies have done exactly the opposite by cutting coverage.

While Rep. Stark's diatribe might have been over the top, the motivating sentiment was dead-on. The President doesn't even blink as he pours hundreds of billions of dollars down the Iraq rat hole (not to mention thousands of American lives and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi lives), but goes into full righteous mode when he kills $7 billion a year to insure 3.8 million uninsured kids. That's less than a month's worth of Iraq spending. Expect more of the same later this year when his outrage grows over the $22 billion (about 2 1/2 months of Iraq) Congress wants to spend over "his" budget. He's got nothing to lose politically, and he's itching for a fight, so expect the vetoes to fly.

And that's what's so depressing about the President's kabuki on these budget issues — it's petty, it's personal, and it's in direct contravention of some of his previous positions, like when he was praising SCHIP and expanding the program just a few years ago. There's no principle here, just a tired, bitter man trying to stick it to his enemies before leaving town. It's pathetic.