Bush hypocritical on war spending (again)

From Huffington Post:

President Bush has included at least $2.51 billion for projects unrelated to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in his latest "emergency" supplemental request.

The additional funding belies Bush's repeated calls for spending bills without assorted extras.

On Tuesday, the president criticized Democrats' for pursuing the "cynical" political strategy of tying education and health spending bills to defense and veterans funds in order to get the money past a threatened veto. Congress should pass "clean" defense spending bills, Bush insisted.

It was similar to a call Bush made last week when he unveiled his proposal for $46 billion in additional supplemental spending to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In considering the new request, Congress "should pass a good, clean bill as soon as possible," so that troops could the bullets and body armor they needed, Bush said.

But an analysis of the president's own supplemental request shows that he might be willing to muddy the waters a little bit, if it means that he can get an unpopular spending bill through Congress.

Tucked within the president's proposal are hundreds of millions of dollars for spending in countries as far-flung as Mexico, Central America, Sudan, Gaza, the West Bank, Pakistan, Djibouti and North Korea.

Among the programs folded into the war supplemental are $500 million in assistance to Mexico to fight organized crime and narcotics trafficking, $350 million in food aid to Africa and $723 million for peacekeeping and humanitarian aid in Darfur...

Other items include $106 million in energy assistance for North Korea, $35 million for refugees in the West Bank and Gaza, and $80.2 million for construction of dining and water facilities at a military base in Djibouti.

Again, President Bush's hypocrisy is shown to have no bounds. He repeatedly attacked Democrats for including non-war related spending in the last supplemental, even though he and the Republicans added such spending in previous supplementals throughout the years. Now, in the latest one, he is requesting his own unrelated spending. It really doesn't get more clear than that.