Obama’s threatening to use his first veto to block a spending bill?  It’s true, but don’t get excited.  The $550 Billion package he’s planning to block is designed to keep the military functioning in Afghanistan and Iraq until the end of 2010.  The Bill was expected to be unveiled today, but probably won’t be approved by the full Senate until September.

If implemented, the president’s veto would halt the war funding, along with $370 million for new F-22 fighter jets, and $600 million to develop the new F-35 combat engine.  If the President’s people are to believed, Obama doesn’t mind funding the wars, it’s the Jets and the engine that are the sticking point.

So let me get this straight, the government has guaranteed $270 BILLION worth of Citi’s troubled assets and pumped another $45 BILLION into Citigroup, only to see much of that cash head overseas.  Beyond that, they’ve confiscated nearly a TRILLION American tax dollars as part of a stimulus package that has so far amounted to squat. 

After all that, Obama is quibbling over a measly $970 million that would benefit our own military?  Now the fiscal responsibility kicks in?

Pathetic.

-Robert Laurie