Am I Naive, or did Senator Claire McCaskill Lie to Bill Maher?

Last night, live on Real Time with Bill Maher:

Maher: But Congress holds the purse strings. If you didn’t vote the money he always asks for, then he couldn’t wage that war.

Senator McCaskill (D-MO): No, but you know what he would do, he would just cut other things. Um, you know, it is not that simple, and here’s the bottom line, most of us got elected last time on a voice of change, and we believe in it and we’re trying. We just need everybody to, like, really get motivated, and turn out this November, and lets finish this job – lets elect some more Democrats to the Senate, more to the the House, and elect Barack Obama President, and I think you’ll see real change.

Now, as usual, I was too lazy to do any research before writing and posting my diary. I know Bush has wrested much power away from the other branches of government, being a war president and all, but isn’t it still true that only Congress has authority to appropriate funds? Isn’t it also true that the president has no authority to re-allocate funds duly appropriated by Congress in favor of his own priorities? Can he really decide, “no, Washington State, you can’t have that money Congress gave you to improve your Interstate highway, I’m using that money for the war?”

I think not.

Now, Senator McCaskill obviously knows this stuff better than me, so surely I’m mistaken, am I not?