Bush Lambastes Democrats for Budget Woes : Campaign: President uses radio address to blame Congress for inability to cope with ‘bloated’ spending.

President Bush, in a campaign-style broadcast from the White House on Saturday, blamed congressional Democrats for a stalemate in Washington on how to cope with a “bloated federal budget.”

“I know that government is too big and spends too much. And now let’s see where Congress stands,” Bush said in a brief nationwide radio address. “We’ll find out who really wants to cut spending and who just wants to keep the pork.”

Taking aim at so-called pork-barrel programs, Bush said he wants to reduce spending for such items as “prickly pear research” and money to “study asparagus yields.” He contended the Democratic congressional majority seems uninterested in that approach.

“Those who support (such programs) will have to explain in November why the public interest has been denied,” the President said. “I’m going to work with those who want the Congress to be accountable and fight those who will try to block our initiatives.”

While the recession has driven down Bush’s popularity, the Democrat-controlled Congress is getting even lower ratings in the opinion polls. Republican strategists plan to escalate their attacks on Congress as corrupt, unaccountable and inefficient.

Saturday, Bush continued his effort to stake out a position as the candidate supporting “reform.”

“During the last decade, one institution after another has looked within itself, decided on improvements and acted to fix its problems,” he said. “Our task now is to bring that process of reform to the United States government.”

As for specifics, Bush said he favored term limits for members of Congress and an end to campaign contributions by special interest groups.

“If Congress won’t change, we’ll have to change the Congress,” he said.

Responding for the Democrats, Michigan Rep. David E. Bonior, the House’s assistant majority leader, said Bush had “abandoned the middle class” by vetoing a bill last week that would have cut taxes for middle-income families at the expense of the affluent.

“Average Americans feel the tax breaks have been going into somebody else’s pockets, the pockets of the wealthy. And they’re right,” Bonior said on a Washington radio station.

Bush would “still rather do nothing than give middle-class families a tax break, paid for by the wealthy,” Bonior said.

While his taped message was slamming the Democrats over the airwaves Saturday morning, the President himself went fishing.

Last week doctors pronounced the 67-year old President in good health after his annual physical exam, but they recommended he take more time off for relaxation. After five hours on the choppy waters of the Potomac River on Saturday, Bush pronounced his trip relaxing, but none too successful. He caught only one small bass.