The veto threats of FY 2008 spending bills are coming fast and furious from the White House. The third such threat of the week was issued yesterday:

• H.R. 2641 —- The Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act.

The Bill's Particulars: Making its way through the House is a bill to provide for Army Corps of Engineers and TVA funding, nuclear waste disposal, and expansion of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. The cost of the bill is $31.6 billion for FY 2008. The president has asked for $30.5 billion. But OMB notes that H.R. 2641 "exceeds the President's requests for programs funded in this bill by $1.1 billion [and] would lead to spending and tax increases that put economic growth and a balanced budget at risk" [emph. added]. Budget Context:The veto threat includes this language: The Democratic Budget Resolution and subsequent spending allocations adopted by the House Appropriations Committee exceed the President's discretionary spending topline by $22 billion, causing a 9 percent increase in FY 2008 discretionary spending. The President has proposed [a] discretionary spending total of not more than $933 billion in FY 2008, which is a $60 billion increase over the FY 2007 enacted level. The president's rash of threats to veto eight of the 12 spending bills this year is apparently motivated by this fact: the president is holding rigidly to a seven percent increase, while the Congress recklessly proposes an increase of nine percent. The difference is less than the rate of inflation, $20 billion in a $13 trillion economy, but apparently enough to "put economic growth and a balanced budget at risk."