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At today’s briefing, White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan used the recently passed transportation bill as an example of when Bush successfully imposed fiscal restraint on Congress:

[I]f you look at some issues — let’s take the highway bill for instance — the president made it very clear that he would not sign a bill that substantially increased our deficit.

We worked with members of Congress and the amount of money that was allocated in that legislation came down significantly from where it was.

If the transportation bill is the model of fiscal discipline, the country in serious trouble. The total cost was $286.5 billion. (Presumably, McClellan is claiming victory because one early Senate version would have cost $295B.) The legislation included 6,500 pork barrel projects – earmarked for specific districts – at a cost to taxpayers of $24 billion. Sen. John McCain described the bill as “terrifying in its fiscal consequences and disappointing for the lack of fiscal discipline it represents.”

Nevertheless, it was the best example McClellan could come up with.

is refusing to pay flood claims from victims of Hurricane Katrina. Suprise, surprise.

Right-wing political strategist and wordsmith Frank Luntz has sold his polling and communication company. The lucky new owner: the Omnicom Group, which you might know better as the owner of the PR firm Ketchum.

Don’t know Ketchum? Here’s a rap sheet of their past work:

– Oversaw the Bush administration deal that paid Armstrong Williams $240,000 in taxpayer dollars to hawk No Child Left Behind

– As part of a $700,000 contract, produced a “video news release geared for television stations” for the Department of Education that “does not identify the government as the source of the report” and “fails to make clear the person purporting to be a reporter was someone hired for the promotional video.” The story ends with the voice of a woman saying, “In Washington, I’m Karen Ryan reporting.”

– Developed a ranking system for newspaper coverage of No Child Left Behind. Points were awarded for stories saying “President Bush and the Republican Party are strong on education,” while “Stories lost five points for negative messages, including claims that the law is not adequately funded or is too tough on states.”

Looks like Luntz’s shop will be in good hands.

do more for the wealthiest victims than the neediest, according to a Congressional Research Service report.

Media outlets around the country are reporting that trucks loaded with millions of pounds of ice meant for the Gulf region are popping up nationwide. FEMA redirected the trucks away from the South after realizing they had ordered too much ice, but the agency is paying truckers up to $900 a day to sit idly in their trucks far away from the affected areas.

“The $9,000 they’re paying me to move this load should have gone to some family down there,” one disgruntled trucker said. “There is definitely millions being wasted that could go to people who need it.”

Here’s where the FEMA “Icecapades” tour has been so far:

- Boise, Idaho

- Portland, Maine

- Glouster, Massachusetts

- Joplin, Arkansas

- Memphis, Tennessee

- Fremont, Nebraska

- Upper Macungie Township, Pennsylvania

- Cumberland, Maryland

Look for it in a town near you!

Today on CBS’s “The Early Show” Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff defends the nomination of Julie Myers to head the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency. Chertoff on Myers:

I don’t think you could find many people with a range of experience and qualifications that she has to address the precise kinds of questions that come up in the customs and immigration enforcement area.

At her confirmation hearing, Myers offered a different perspective:

I realize that I’m not 80 years old. I have a few gray hairs, more coming, but I will seek to work with those who are knowledgeable in this area, who know more than I do.

For more on how Myers is unqualified check out noted left-wing polemicist Michelle Malkin.

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