Bush Urges B-2, ‘Star Wars’ Funding

WASHINGTON — President Bush, calling for a military budget that “defends people, not pork,” Tuesday urged the Senate to keep the production lines rolling on the B-2 bomber and to keep up work on the Strategic Defense Initiative, also known as “Star Wars.”

He took aim anew at the House-passed defense spending bill, saying that if Congress sends him an “inadequate” Pentagon budget, “no matter how big a bill (or) how urgent, I will veto it.”

Bush, addressing an industry group called the American Defense Preparedness Assn., said the Persian Gulf War proved the worth of high-tech weaponry that “shorten wars (and) save lives.”

He timed the appeal with the Senate Armed Services Committee’s beginning work on its version of the 1992 defense budget.

He said the B-2 Stealth bomber, at a cost of $860 million each, was “absolutely crucial” to America’s defense.

Meanwhile, the White House announced Tuesday that President Bush began taking daily doses of a synthetic thyroid hormone and will continue to do so for the rest of his life as part of his treatment for Graves’ disease.

The drug, Synthroid, will replace the natural hormone that had been produced by Bush’s overactive thyroid gland, which was largely destroyed by radioactive iodine as part of the treatment process.