Bush Raps Democrats on Spending.

President Bush never picked a spending fight when his party ran Congress, but with Democrats now in charge of the budget, he's dug in for a challenge.

In a stop in Arkansas, Bush on Monday planned to again chide congressional leaders for failing to send him any of the 12 spending bills that keep the government running. The budget year began Oct. 1, and federal agencies are operating on a stopgap bill for now. [...]

Given the budget's scope, a difference in the range of $20 billion is "trivial in economic terms," said Sidney Weintraub, an expert on trade and economics at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"But they think it might have a payoff in political terms," Weintraub said of Bush and fellow Republicans. "I think the Democrats will play this as 'We're more responsible on budget issues than Republicans are,' and this is their way of saying it isn't so."

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