CRAWFORD, Texas – President Bush lashed out Saturday at the opposition party for its budget policies and served notice once again that he plans to veto bills with “excessive spending.”
In his weekly radio address, Bush said the Democrats’ “tax and spend” approach is endangering economic growth and budget-balancing efforts. “They’ve passed a budget that would mean higher taxes for American families and job creators, ignore the need for entitlement reform and pile on hundreds of billions of dollars in new government spending over the next five years,” Bush said.Bush is trying to hold discretionary spending to no more than $933 billion for the coming fiscal year – roughly $60 billion more than the current year – but Democrats in Congress are pushing for an additional $23 billion for domestic programs.
Democrats criticized Bush’s threat as irresponsible. “Democrats have crafted bipartisan funding bills that make modest but critical increases in priority investments like education and health care,” House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said in a statement released by his office.
North Carolina: Nifong disbarred
District Attorney Michael Nifong was stripped of his law license Saturday and banned from ever practicing law again for grossly mishandling a rape prosecution in which three Duke University lacrosse players were falsely accused. A disciplinary panel of the North Carolina State Bar, saying Nifong had engaged in “dishonesty, fraud, deceit and misrepresentation,” found him guilty of withholding evidence, lying to judges and making prejudicial pretrial statements in the highly charged case.
Tennessee: Car careens into crowd
A drag-racing vehicle lost control during a parade and spun into a crowd of bystanders on Saturday night, killing four adults and injuring up to 15 people, authorities said. Investigators were trying to determine what caused the vehicle to careen into the crowd at the Cars for Kids charity event in Selmer, about 80 miles east of Memphis. Scott Henley of Selmer said the vehicle started burning off its tires, then began to fishtail and slammed into a light pole before spinning into the audience.
New Jersey: Anti-discrimination law
Starting today, New Jersey joins eight other states in making it illegal for employers and landlords to discriminate against transgendered people. The law, which sailed through the Legislature in December, has received little attention in a state that’s gaining a reputation for being welcoming to lesbian, gay and transgendered people. Earlier this year, New Jersey began allowing same-sex couples to unite in civil unions.
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