Collender Examines Bush's Budget "Strategy" In a succinct synopsis of President's Bush sudden switch from spendthrift to scrooge, Stan Collender asks in his latest Budget Battle column ($) why Bush has declared a(nother) unwinnable war. It's unclear why the White House would issue five veto threats just in the last two weeks of budget bills fractionally larger than his requests when the six-year Bush record on the budget is dismal. He has added trillions of dollars in debt and approved increased spending... His budget directors are little-known and have no credibility with the general pubic or financial markets. His Treasury secretaries have been practically irrelevant in making domestic economic policy. The president's credibility on the budget is virtually nonexistent. Bush even devoted last Saturday's national radio address to blaming Democrats in Congress for the growth in earmarks "even though the increase occurred when the House and Senate were under Republican control and in appropriations that he signed... It's hard to imagine what the White House is thinking." But Collender tacitly suggests an answer to his own question in his first sentence, noting the paradox of focusing on the budget "even though immigration and the Middle East [are] on the minds of more people." Precisely. What better way to get people's minds off these sandtraps than to baffle them with budget baloney? A 29 percent approval rating is the mother of invention.