The Republicans can't afford to pay for their own campaign junkets. They need our [Republicans don't pay taxes anymore] tax money.

CHARLESTON, S.C., July 29 — President Bush directed unusually harsh criticism at the Senate today for its version of a welfare bill, which he said would hurt the people it was trying to help. Almost immediately afterward, he collected more than $1 million at a Republican fund-raiser.

In an efficient and lucrative three-hour and 45-minute trip to this Republican-friendly state, Mr. Bush met in a private session with former welfare recipients, gave a speech at a suburban high school admonishing the Senate to pass his version of welfare reform, then spoke to 1,000 people at a fund-raising lunch for former Representative Mark Sanford, the Republican candidate for governor. The lunch cost $500 per plate, but the biggest contributors gave $10,000 to have their pictures taken with the president.

The visit was the usual presidential combination of political fund-raising and policy promotion, allowing the White House to charge taxpayers, not just the Republican Party, for part of the travel bill.

....

Mr. Bush spent an hour and five minutes at the fund-raiser for Mr. Sanford at the North Charleston Convention Center, where the president praised Mr. Sanford's character.

"I appreciate having a man who understands the money he's spending as your governor is not the government's money [my italics]," Mr. Bush said. "It's the people's money. And he's a man who set a good example."

Note, in passing through this news article, that the "presidential" part of this fund-raising trip involved his attempt to sell, as more helpful to those on welfare than the alternative senate form, his callous version of a new welfare bill, one which would force people on welfare to work 40 hours a week (the senate would require 30 hours). [Black is white.]