Doing the Veto-Voodoo Dance It's vetoes ("veti" in Latin?) gone wild this week at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, with President Bush vetoing the Farm bill this afternoon, and issuing formal veto threats against the war funding bill cleared last week by the Senate Appropriations Committee and, now, against the House extenders package, H.R. 6049 -- the Energy and Job Creation Act of 2008. H.R. 6049 extends a welter of tax breaks -- the vast majority benefiting corporations, per the Tax Policy Center -- at a one-year cost of about $55 billion (see JCT Score). The problem is that the House Ways and Means Committee had the temerity to pay for this package, so that it wouldn't blow a $55 billion hole in the federal budget. And that's a big no-no for the White House. See, the president loves all those tax cuts. $55 billion is just too big a price to pay. So why pay for any of them at all? Here's the White House "reasoning," or ratiocination: The Administration does not believe that efforts to avoid tax increases on Americans need to be coupled with provisions to increase revenue... these provisions would increase tax burdens, undermine the competitiveness of U.S. workers and businesses, and could have adverse effects on the U.S. economy. As opposed to the interest payments on the new $55 billion he'd prefer to add to the national debt than to pay for. Interest payments that would go in large measure to the Chinese, Japanese, E.U., and our other international economic competitors. Is this what the president's father would call the Vene-Vidi-Veti-Voodoo economics dance? POSTSCRIPT: The House has just passed H.R. 6049 by a vote of 263-160, 19 votes short of the number necessary for a veto override.