According to congressional sources, Rep. Jeb Hensarling of Texas, chairman of the conservative Republican Study Committee, privately advised the White House against a veto because it would be overridden thanks to support for veterans -- setting a bad example for the future.
Bush next plans vetoes of the Energy-Water and Interior-Environment bills. The remaining vetoes would be on Labor, HHS, Education; Transportation and HUD; Commerce, Justice and Science; Agriculture and Rural Development; State and Foreign Operations (partly because the House bill omits the so-called Mexico City anti-abortion language) and Defense. In addition to the VA appropriation, the only other money bills Bush plans to sign are Legislative Branch, where Congress traditionally sets its own funding, and Financial Services and General Government, where the House bill actually falls short of the administration's request.
Hensarling last week collected signatures of 147 House Republicans, one more than needed, pledging to sustain money bill vetoes, and the number is growing. Rep. James Walsh, representing a shaky upstate New York district, as the ranking Republican on the Labor-HHS Appropriations subcommittee, has indicated he probably will vote to override a veto of that bill. But subcommittee ranking Republicans -- the famous "cardinals" who are a law unto themselves in Congress -- met with the president last Thursday and signaled support for his budget offensive.
It is an offensive pressed on Bush by congressional GOP leaders and by his own budget director, Rob Portman, a former member of the House Republican leadership as a congressman from Ohio. Portman believes the 2006 electoral catastrophe in his state was caused mainly by Republicans losing the mantle of fiscal responsibility. Unless it is retrieved, Ohio -- and the presidency -- will go to the Democrats in 2008. By vetoes that would slice over $20 billion in Democratic spending, Bush is seeking to transform that outlook. It will trigger an epochal political struggle in the months ahead.