Crossposted from Flopping Aces
Bush’s speech today at The Heritage Foundation:
Right on!Congress also needs to pass the Department of Defense spending bill, as well as the funding bill for our nation’s veterans. There are reports that congressional leaders may be considering combining the funding bills for our military and our veterans together with a bloated labor, health and education spending bill. It’s hard to imagine a more cynical ploy than holding funding for our troops and our wounded warriors hostage in order to extract $11 billion in wasteful Washington spending. If the reports of this strategy are true, I will veto such a three-bill pileup. (Applause.)
I ask Congress to send me a clean veterans funding bill by Veterans Day; and to pass a clean defense spending bill. Congress needs to put the needs of those who put on the uniform ahead of their desire to spend more money.
When it comes to funding our troops, some in Washington should spend more time responding to the warnings of terrorists like Osama bin Laden and the requests of our commanders on the ground, and less time responding to the demands of MoveOn.org bloggers and Code Pink protesters.
Meanwhile the Democrats have scheduled another fruitless vote to be held in the near future seeing as how Bush will again veto, as he promised to do many times already, the “new” SCHIP bill which still funds middle-class families AND adults:
Of course Politico fails to mention it funds adults as well as children, something it was never intended to do along with funding those who do not truly need the free money. THAT is why he is vetoing this measure, as he should. He was willing to add 5 billion to this program but noooooooo, the Democrats had to pick a political fight in the hopes of throwing a few jabs at the “heartless” Republicans. A political fight they knew they would lose once, and now know they will lose again.The Senate passed another version of the hotly debated children’s health insurance bill Thursday, but it’s doomed for another veto thanks to a last-minute breakdown in bipartisan negotiations.
Republican leaders in both chambers stepped in to quash negotiations between key senators and House GOP holdouts whose support could have led to a major breakthrough on the bill. Lacking a new agreement, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) was forced to hold a vote sooner than expected.
The bill passed 64-30. The legislation now lacks veto-proof margins in both the Senate and the House, where it passed last week 265-142.
President Bush is expected to veto the bill quickly — as he did an earlier, similar measure — leaving the State Children’s Health Insurance Program in limbo. Democrats want to spend an additional $35 billion over the next 10 years to cover 10 million uninsured children, but Bush has said that would make the program too expensive.
Does this knowledge make them pause and reconsider? Nope. Instead they waste time on this bill and other important bills, like funding our troops. Don Surber:
The federal budget year began Oct. 1 without a budget. The Democratic Congress has yet to send even one budget bill to the president.
And they wonder why their job approval is 11%.
44 Republican senators sent a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Plurality Leader Harry Reid urging them to pass stand-alone Defense and VA spending bills by Veterans Day. The letter included this zinger: “Our soldiers and veterans already have done so much for our county. The Democratic Congressional Leadership should not now cynically use them to shoulder a bloated ‘minibus’ funding bill up Pennsylvania Avenue and wrest billions in excessive spending.”
A minibus. I love it.
Sean Kevelighan, a spokesman for the White House budget office, told CQ: “They need to send the president a clean veterans’ funding bill that we have already agreed to by Veterans Day, so we can keep America’s promise to those who have defended our freedom and are recovering from injury.”
They hold wounded veterans healthcare hostage, funding for our troops hostage, send bills they know will never get passed to the President, and in the end get absolutely nothing done.
Way to go you “most ethical congress ever!”
I guess the only good thing to come out of this is the fact that the Democrat led Congress is pushing their approval ratings to historic lows. Will this be enough to send a message to voters come 2008?
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