VOA常速英语2007-Bush, Republicans Clash With Democrats Over Spen

By Dan Robinson
Capitol Hill
30 October 2007

Democrats¹ controlling Congress have responded sharply to President Bush who accused them of failing to deliver major spending legislation. VOA's Dan Robinson reports from Capitol Hill.

In remarks at the White House, the president accused majority Democrats of wasting time with investigations³ while failing to move major appropriations⁴ measures that fund government operations.

Though the 2008 fiscal⁵ year began October 1, annual spending legislation has not reached the president's desk, where he would either sign or veto them.

Republicans were responsible of slow action on spending bills when they controlled Congress, but they and the president are doing everything they can to highlight the current bottleneck⁶ under the Democrats.

Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell spoke⁷ after weekly Republican policy discussions.

"One of the principal promises the new Democratic majority made was that they were going to do it differently," said Mitch McConnell. "They were going to get the job done on time, that didn't happen. They were going to send individual appropriations bills, that didn't happen. Here we are, the fiscal year ended September 30th [and] not one single appropriations bill on the desk of the president. The hypocrisy⁸ of that I think is stunning⁹."

Democrats fired back, repeating their tactic¹⁰ of contrasting the president's veto of key bills such as one to fund children's health insurance, with spending on the war in Iraq.

Harry¹¹ Reid is Senate majority leader:

"We feel very comfortable fighting for America's priorities," said Harry Reid. "We feel very uncomfortable listening to the president talk about what we are doing that is wrong, when we know that the main problem we have in America today is the inordinate¹² amount of time, effort and money being spent in an intractable civil war in Iraq which has destabilized that region and dropped our standing¹³ in the world community."

House and Senate appropriators are expected to meet Thursday to discuss a possible catch-all measure including three separate bills for the Pentagon, Veterans Administration, and domestic health and education spending.

However, the president says he would veto such a measure, asserting that Democrats want to hold military funding hostage in order to force his hand on domestic spending:

"I will veto such a three bill pile-up," said President Bush. "Congress should pass each bill one at a time in a fiscally-responsible manner that reflects agreement between the legislative¹⁴ branch and the executive branch."

In a news conference Tuesday, House Democratic leader Steny Hoyer accused the president of obstructionism on children's health legislation, a revised version of which is now pending² before the Senate, and urged him to drop his veto threats.

"We think our priorities are right," said Steny Hoyer. "We think the American public support our priorities, and we would ask the president [to] sign these bills which will make America a stronger, better place, keep our faith with our veterans and our military, keep our country strong and keep our kids educated and our families healthy."

President Bush Tuesday said Democratic leaders were irresponsible for delaying action on his $196-billion emergency request for U.S. military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Democrats say they won't act on that until they see President Bush endorsing¹⁵ a significant change in his Iraq strategy.

1 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 pending   

prep.直到，等待…期间；adj.待定的；迫近的

参考例句：

• The lawsuit is still pending in the state court.这案子仍在州法庭等待定夺。
• He knew my examination was pending.他知道我就要考试了。

3 investigations   

（正式的）调查( investigation的名词复数 )； 侦查； 科学研究； 学术研究

参考例句：

• His investigations were intensive and thorough but revealed nothing. 他进行了深入彻底的调查，但没有发现什么。
• He often sent them out to make investigations. 他常常派他们出去作调查。

4 appropriations   

n.挪用（appropriation的复数形式）

参考例句：

• More commonly, funding controls are imposed in the annual appropriations process. 更普遍的作法是，拨款控制被规定在年度拨款手续中。 来自英汉非文学 - 行政法
• Should the president veto the appropriations bill, it goes back to Congress. 假如总统否决了这项拨款提案，就把它退还给国会。 来自英汉非文学 - 政府文件

5 fiscal   

adj.财政的，会计的，国库的，国库岁入的

参考例句：

• The increase of taxation is an important fiscal policy.增税是一项重要的财政政策。
• The government has two basic strategies of fiscal policy available.政府有两个可行的财政政策基本战略。

6 bottleneck   

n.瓶颈口，交通易阻的狭口；妨生产流程的一环

参考例句：

• The transportation bottleneck has blocked the movement of the cargo.运输的困难阻塞了货物的流通。
• China's strained railroads already become a bottleneck for the economy.中国紧张的铁路运输已经成为经济增长的瓶颈。

7 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

8 hypocrisy   

n.伪善，虚伪

参考例句：

• He railed against hypocrisy and greed.他痛斥伪善和贪婪的行为。
• He accused newspapers of hypocrisy in their treatment of the story.他指责了报纸在报道该新闻时的虚伪。

9 stunning   

adj.极好的；使人晕倒的

参考例句：

• His plays are distinguished only by their stunning mediocrity.他的戏剧与众不同之处就是平凡得出奇。
• The finished effect was absolutely stunning.完工后的效果非常美。

10 tactic   

n.战略，策略；adj.战术的，有策略的

参考例句：

• Reducing prices is a common sales tactic.降价是常用的销售策略。
• She had often used the tactic of threatening to resign.她惯用以辞职相威胁的手法。

11 harry   

vt.掠夺，蹂躏，使苦恼

参考例句：

• Today,people feel more hurried and harried.今天，人们感到更加忙碌和苦恼。
• Obama harried business by Healthcare Reform plan.奥巴马用医改掠夺了商界。

12 inordinate   

adj.无节制的；过度的

参考例句：

• The idea of this gave me inordinate pleasure.我想到这一点感到非常高兴。
• James hints that his heroine's demands on life are inordinate.詹姆斯暗示他的女主人公对于人生过于苛求。

13 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

14 legislative   

n.立法机构，立法权；adj.立法的，有立法权的

参考例句：

• Congress is the legislative branch of the U.S. government.国会是美国政府的立法部门。
• Today's hearing was just the first step in the legislative process.今天的听证会只是展开立法程序的第一步。

15 endorsing   

v.赞同( endorse的现在分词 )；在（尤指支票的）背面签字；在（文件的）背面写评论；在广告上说本人使用并赞同某产品

参考例句：

• Yet Communist leaders are also publicly endorsing religion in an unprecedented way. 不过，共产党领导层对宗教信仰的公开认可也是以前不曾有过的。 来自互联网
• Connecticut Independent Senator Joseph Lieberman is endorsing Republican Senator John McCain. 康涅狄格州独立派参议员约瑟夫。列波曼将会票选共和议员约翰。麦凯恩。 来自互联网