WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Rep. John Murtha, D-Pennsylvania, Friday sharply brushed aside President Bush's claim that the Democrats' Iraq spending bill is "political theater," telling CNN the president is looking to blame the latest conditions in Iraq on the Democrats.

"He's overspent and now he wants us to get him out of the hole," Murtha told CNN's Wolf Blitzer. "He's trying to blame us for his problems. This is the president's problem. He needs the money and he's going to have to deal with us." (Watch video: Murtha fights back)

In response the presidents' criticisms that the bill is packed with the Democrats' "pet projects," including money for fishermen, peanut storage, spinach farmers, and the milk industry, Murtha said the failure to fund these entities in the last GOP-controlled Congress forced the Democrats to include them in this spending bill.

"This was all left over from the last Congress, the Republican-controlled Congress," he said. "This was all left over. Katrina spending, the (Base Realignment and Closure) spending. All these things were left over. And he's trying to blame the Democratic Congress from funding things that needed to be spent in an emergency fashion."