Washington, D.C. ? President Bush on Saturday signed a bill to prevent a government shutdown, but not without complaint.

Bush lambasted the Democrats who control Congress for sending him the stopgap measure while they continue to work on more than a dozen spending bills funding the day-to-day operations of 15 Cabinet departments.

“Congress failed in its most basic responsibility,” the president said in his weekly radio address.

The bills are tied up because Democrats want to add $23 billion for domestic programs to Bush’s $933 billion request for the approximately one-third of the federal budget funded by the yearly spending bills. Bush has threatened vetoes on most of the bills, eager to re-establish his party’s reputation as the place to go for fiscal discipline.

The president said Democrats are planning the “biggest tax increase in American history” to pay for the new spending.

“Earlier this year congressional leaders promised to show that they could be responsible with the people’s money,” he said. “Unfortunately they seem to have chosen the path of higher spending.”