National security may be President Bush's strong suit, but in one area at least, Democrats think they have found a soft underbelly: homeland security. The fact is that the Bush administration has not approached homeland security with the same vigor and resolve that it has shown in prosecuting the war on terror or against Saddam Hussein.

"It is time to say to this president, 'Mr. President, please put our security first. Please set aside $20 billion in tax breaks for 226,000 millionaires, and put homeland security for 290 million Americans first,' " Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.) argued on the Senate floor.

Democrats rightly point out that the president's budget is inadequate and does not come close to the investment experts say is needed to address the country's vulnerabilities in homeland defenses. The administration's 2003 budget promised $3.5 billion for new first-responder grants to be overseen by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. But in the FY 2003 spending bill approved by Congress, most funds come from older programs that have been either eliminated or consolidated, or whose scope has been broadened to include homeland security. 

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