If you don't know that this happened, you can thank the media, who have covered only half the story. Here's how the New York Times reported it:
President Bush, in a news conference today, expressed condolences for the victims and said "the federal government must respond and respond robustly to help the people there not only recover, but to make sure that lifeline of activity, that bridge, gets rebuilt as quickly as possible." The White House later announced that Mr. Bush would travel to Minneapolis on Saturday.
If you're guessing that he said a lot more than that, you're right. But you have to go to the White House website to find it. We get all the stuff you'd expect; the assurances that the federal government will 'respond robustly' and the calls for prayer that cover the White House website like wallpaper. Then comes this:
This doesn't have to be this way. The Democrats won last year's election fair and square, and now they control the calendar for bringing up bills in Congress. They need to pass each of these spending bills individually, on time, and in a fiscally responsible way.
The budget I've sent to Congress fully funds America's priorities. It increases discretionary spending by 6.9 percent. My Cabinet Secretaries assure me that this is adequate to meet the needs of our nation.
Unfortunately, Democratic leaders in Congress want to spend far more. Their budget calls for nearly $22 billion more in discretionary spending next year alone. These leaders have tried to downplay that figure. Yesterday one called this increase -- and I quote -- "a very small difference" from what I proposed. Only in Washington can $22 billion be called a very small difference. And that difference will keep getting bigger. Over the next five years it will total nearly $205 billion in additional discretionary spending. That $205 billion averages out to about $112 million per day, $4.7 million per hour, $78,000 per minute.
In fact, in a press release of ten paragraphs (including the closing, "Thank you for your time"), only three are about the damned bridge -- the rest is Bush scolding dems for wanting to 'raise taxes.' If you were relying solely on the mainstream media, you'd never know this...
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