Posted on 11/02/2007 10:34:40 AM PDT by SmithL
An increasingly confrontational President Bush on Friday vetoed a bill authorizing hundreds of popular water projects even though lawmakers can count enough votes to override him.
Bush brushed aside significant objections from Capitol Hill, even from Republicans, in thwarting legislation that provides money for projects like repairing hurricane damage, restoring wetlands and preventing flooding in communities across the nation.
This level of opposition virtually assured that Bush would have a veto overridden for the first time in his presidency. He has used the veto very sparingly for most of the time he has been in office, but has made more use of it recently.
"When we override this irresponsible veto, perhaps the president will finally recognize that Congress is an equal branch of government and reconsider his many other reckless veto threats," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.
"More than two years after failing to respond to the devastation and destruction of Hurricane Katrina, he is refusing to fund important projects guided by the Army Corps of Engineers that are essential to protecting the people of the Gulf Coast region."
The $23 billion water bill passed in both chambers of Congress by well more than the two-thirds majority needed to vacate a veto and make the bill law.
Bush objected to the $9 billion in projects added during negotiations between the House and Senate. He hoped that his action, even though it is sure not to hold, would cast him as a friend to conservatives who demand a tighter rein on federal spending.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Bush is acting as a conservative. Let’s give him credit for these actions. He should have taken this stance a long time ago but better late than never.
Can Someone list the pork that in this deal?
Water Pork!
GW has really gotten his groove back.
Keep up the good vetoes Mr. President.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
_$3.6 billion for major wetlands and other coastal restoration, flood control and dredging projects for Louisiana, a state where coastal erosion and storms have resulted in the disappearance of huge areas of land;
_nearly $2 billion for the restoration of the Florida Everglades;
_nearly $2 billion for the Army Corps of Engineers to build seven new locks on the upper Mississippi and Illinois rivers;
_$7 billion for various projects related to hurricane mitigation in Mississippi and Louisiana, including assuring 100-year levee protection in New Orleans;
_hundreds of smaller dredging, wetlands restoration and flood control projects across the country.
Congress Spends Billions on Swamps!
A Republican president wasn’t going to veto bills sent to him by a Republican house and a Republican senate.
They had to work things out in private before they passed the bills.
When Clinton vetoed bills, the papers would always detail the reasons, and explain why he was right to do so. Not so with Bush. But maybe he can get conservatives to start calling their representatives on this pork.
I always love how the AP can make such presumptions without proof.
Attempting to demonstrate fiscal toughness now, in the seventh year of his presidency, carried the risk being criticized for doing too little, too late or as waging a transparently partisan attack against the Democrats who now run Capitol Hill.
The AP again jumps to it's own conclusions while editorializing that in vetoing this bill, it's "too little" or "too late" or a "partisan attack" while ignoring the possibility that it was the right thing to do, overridden or not.
“But maybe he can get conservatives to start calling their representatives on this pork.”
Maybe. Our elected officials used to try to represent the American Public. During the Clinton Administration many officials were replaced with members of the Dixie Mafia.
The ones that weren’t were browbeaten into submission, overridden and ordered to shut up and look the other way.
This was done publicly, in Congress, in the Senate, in hearings. Not behind closed doors.
Money was thrown around in Santa Claus sized sacks to buy anyone’s cooperation. Lack of cooperation had it’s consequences. More of the Dixie Mafia handiwork.
Many of our leaders lost their willpower, seeing things as hopeless. They knew then that evil had taken over the reigns of the government.
They even passed a bill stating that NONE of the CLINTONS, their staff, their FRIENDS, their RELATIVES could be pursued, prosecuted, nor even questioned for any ETHICS violations during the Clinton Governorship of Arkansas.
That was when they were laundering $30 million per DAY through banks on both coasts, and offshore, from cocaine trafficking.
The money was used to give out ‘loans’. Non-repayable loans.
The MSM was bought up lock, stock, and barrel.
Hollywood was bought up.
Everybody in DC knew what happened to Vince Foster.
Best Friend of the President from childhood.
Highest ranking official in White House.
Those involved were told to lie, and did.
Those who didn’t died.
Those who knew but couldn’t prove it, asked questions and were silenced.
The President of the US does not have the FBI investigate the death of his BEST FRIEND to see if maybe assassins killed Vince Foster to hurt him.
Instead, it is left to the Park Police, who were the dredge of the barrel from the Dixie Mafia.
Most people don’t get it, but we already lost control of our government, our country.
We are now fighting to get it back.
LLS
Good for us. Good for the President. He deserves high praise for this.
Bush actually vetoed another bill!!???
Somebody must’ve opened their Funk and Wagnalls to the right page so he could spell it correctly!!!
This is nice to see, but I can’t help but be cynical that only in the final year or so of his presidency does President Bush attempt to reign in spending. It seems he’s only doing it as a political move to paint the Dems in a certain way. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not defending the Dems here - they’re no doubt even worse over-spending pork-barrelers than the Repubs.
It’s just that if the Republican Congress of, say, 2006 would have sent Bush this same bill (and trust me, they have sent him many similar ones), he would have signed it. If we get a Republican president in 2009, I hope he will be an economic conservative from the start of his presidency, not just in the final 15 months.
Is Harry Reid even from this Solar System? I used to think he might not be from this planet, but I figured out he wasn't with his "Surge Failed" speech before the surge.
I watched brave people risk their lives (not shemp smith) to rescue people down there and Harry Reid acts as if Bush told them to "go buy a boat".
“When we override this irresponsible veto, perhaps the president will finally recognize that Congress is an equal branch of government and reconsider his many other reckless veto threats,” said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.
This is patently false. They are not equal. But they are reckless...with taxpayer $$$.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
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