Another showdown in Congress; latest Field Poll results show Dems turning on Pelosi
The Republicans held the line and staved off one attempt at the Dems’ massive entitlement expansion the S-CHIP program. They’ll have to join the White House to kill it again soon. President Bush and the GOP face another showdown over spending and other legislative priorities. He’ll be speaking shortly over appropriations, FISA, and the Mukasey nomination. Stand by…
9:38am Eastern. Bush speaks, flanked by GOP leadership:
“Congress is not getting it’s work done. We’re near the end of the year and there isn’t much to show for it. The House is wasting valuable time on a constant stream of investigations and the Senate has wasted valuable time trying to pull our troops out of Iraq.”
Bush lambastes the new S-CHIP entitlement bill. “We want to sit down in good faith and come up with a good bill that’s responsible.” Criticizes Dem ploy to hold military spending hostage unless GOP coughs up social and education spending with it.
***
More notable quotables from the Bush remarks via the White House communications office:
“There are now reports that congressional leaders may be considering combining the Veterans and Department of Defense appropriations bills, and then add a bloated Labor, Health and Education spending bill to both of them. It’s hard to imagine a more cynical political strategy than trying to hold hostage funding for our troops in combat and our wounded warriors in order to extract $11 billion in additional social spending. I hope media reports about such a strategy are wrong, I really do. If they’re not, if the reports of this strategy are true, I will veto such a three-bill pileup. Congress should pass each bill one at a time in a fiscally responsible manner that reflects agreement between the legislative branch and the executive branch.”
President Bush: “[I]f the reports [of Congress combining spending bills] are true, I will veto such a three-bill pileup.” “Congress should pass each bill one at a time in a fiscally responsible manner that reflects agreement between the legislative branch and the executive branch.” (President George W. Bush, Statement After Meeting With House Republican Conference, The White House, 10/30/07)
· “It would be irresponsible to not give our troops the resources they need to get their job done because Congress was unable to get its job done.” “[I]t seems like we ought to be able to agree that we’re going to support our troops who are in harm’s way. I know the members feel that way, standing with me. I hope the leadership feels that way, and they ought to give me a bill that funds, among other things, bullets, and body armor, and protection against IEDs, and mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicles.”
· “I again urge them to pass a clean Defense appropriations bill, and a war supplemental bill to fund our troops in combat.”
· “I again ask Congress to send me 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.”
“There Is Important Work To Be Done On Behalf Of The American People”
President Bush: “Congress has been unable or unwilling to get its basic job done of passing spending bills.” “They have not been able to send a single annual appropriations bill to my desk, and that’s the worst record for a Congress in 20 years. One of the important responsibilities of the Congress is to pass appropriations bills. And yet the leadership that’s on the Hill now cannot get that job done.”
· “They haven’t seen a bill they could not solve without shoving a tax hike into it.” “You know, they proposed tax increases in the farm bill, the energy bill, the small business bill, and of course, the SCHIP bill.”
· “[P]roposed spending is skyrocketing under their leadership. After all, they’re trying to spend an additional $205 billion over the next five years.” “Some have said, well, that doesn’t matter much; it’s not that much money. Well, $205 billion over the next five years in the real world amounts to this: $4.7 million per hour, every hour, for every day, for the next five years. That’s a lot of money.”
“After Going Alone And Going Nowhere, Congress Should Instead Work With The Administration On [An SCHIP] Bill That Puts Poor Children First”
President Bush: “Despite knowing it does not have a chance of becoming law, the Senate will now take up the second SCHIP bill the House passed last week. I believe the Senate is wasting valuable time.” “This [SCHIP] bill, remarkably, manages to spend more money over five years than the first bill did.”
· Congress’ SCHIP bill “proposed tax increases [that] would actually pay for 2 million people to move from private health insurance to an inefficient, lower-quality, government-run program.” “We want a bill that enrolls the more than 500,000 poor children currently eligible for the program who are not a part of the program.”
***
Speaking of S-CHIP, the Dems continue to bray that “it’s paid for.” Here’s how:
***
Check out the latest Field Poll results in California. This should wipe the smirk off Nancy Pelosi’s face…for a moment, anyway:
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s own party is turning on her, apparently because of a perception among California Democrats that she has not done enough to shake up the status quo in Washington, D.C., according to a Field Poll released Friday.
Congress overall is doing even worse with California voters, with an approval rating sagging to 30 percent or below for only the seventh time in the past 15 years, the poll of 1,201 registered voters found. Both Pelosi, the San Francisco Democrat who became speaker this year, and Congress as a whole have fallen short of voter expectations since taking over both houses, poll director Mark DiCamillo said.
“I think the reason for her decline and the low ratings Congress is getting is that voters here are not seeing any change,” DiCamillo said.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s approval rating of 51 percent is down 10 percentage points since March, but consistent with her average over the years. Sen. Barbara Boxer’s rating also has slumped, from 54 percent in March to 44 percent. Both Boxer and Feinstein, however, still enjoy the approval of more voters than disapproval of them.
For Pelosi, it was the first time the poll showed more people disapproving than approving of her performance – 40 percent to 35 percent, with 25 percent having no opinion.
***
Icing on the rotten Democrat cake: The Mother of All Tax Hikes.
More: The Pelosi-Rangel wrangle.
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lol, duh.
Short and Sweet.
In many ways though, Congress not doing anything is much superior to them actually passing bills. If they do nothing, not as much bad comes out.
I nominate this for Understatement of the Year.
I’d rather see them do less than more as well. The less they do, the better we are as a country imho.
Frankly, that’s how I like my government. Unable to do ANYTHING.
If they can’t pass any single thing, they can’t affect my life. This is a good thing.
But, they are wasting numerous amounts of my time and yours with all the calling, faxing and e-mailing we have been doing to stop their madness.
How many of you or others get paid for NOT doing their job?
They should be FIRED!
They should be
FIREDFried!AJ – I agree – but the fact of the matter is, almost all legislation which they have enacted in the past 20 years (just an estimate) has not been in the total best interest of the country. Getting nothing done – even if it takes our efforts to stop them – is preferable to bad legislation.
I believe he also said, whenever Congress is in session, hold on to your wallet.
I agree, though – the less they actually DO, the better off we are.
Agree with that, but not liken it much.
We need a clean sweep. If I can’t have that. Can they at least not use “American people” when they bring their bills to the floor?
Nothing annoys me more than to have to listen to them droan on about what the American people want. When it is abundantly clear that they could careless about what the American people want…
I am with others here…sometimes less is more.
Hey “preview” is back!!! Yippee!
I have not studied the proposed S-CHIP expansion much, though I suspect that I would probably support it more than most here, but jeez…
Guess what guys [Congressional Dems]? You do not have the votes to override the veto. Plain and simple. You knew that then and you know that now.
I can see voting on it once to force the president’s hand, force member’s to take a side, or to see if you can round up enough votes. Both sides have done that in the past. But when you have lost, you’ve lost. If you don’t like it go out and win in 08 and bring it up again.
And it pains me to say this but I believe Bush really is trying in good faith to reach out to the other side and come up with a compromise bill.
Right now, if they push this again, they will only come out looking petty and petulant and unproductive.
Liberal’s perspective: Democrats were elected to begin troop reductions in Iraq, prevent US torture and privacy violations, and generally to play hardball with the Bush administration. But the Democratic leadership shows no sign of doing these things. The continue to fund the war at requested levels, refuse to enact enforceable benchmarks, wait patiently while the administration stalls on producing documents, etc., and generally act like Republicans.
Either my public school math is wrong, or that equates to a disapproval rating below 30% basically every 2 years or so (a little over 2 years I guess.)
Doesn’t seem like news to me…
At this point, the real news would be if they had an approval rating OVER 30%.
That video is funny. He’s got another one, but this one is better.
I agree that I’d rather Congress do nothing than mess everything up. I wish they would focus on doing good for the country rather than ‘beating the other party’. It may be time to consider term limits.
While it may be time to consider term limits, they would not work. Look at well various politicians who got elected using the promise of self imposed term limits were at keeping their word. Term limits could become law and our illustrious D.C. C**pweasels would still find a loophole.
LGM – at the risk of arguing completely off topic, liberals were not elected to stop the war. Joe Lieberman vs. Ned Lamont is evidence of that. Liberals won only because the “throw the bums out” sentiment superseded any other rational thoughts.
It’s way past time to consider term limits, problem is it will never happen.
I wonder how many people remember the interview with Dick Morris on Hannity & Colmes, early this year, where he talked about Pelosi’s agenda.
He said that his contacts in the House have told him how orders came down from the Speaker that no bill which could possibly benefit the American people will be passed for two years because she doesn’t want to give Bush the opportunity to sign anything which will help the people.
So, why is nobody in the media pointing this out?
Gee, I wonder.
This is the message that I want to send to all the “women voters” which Hillary is assuming will vote for her based on gender alone:
Yes, the country is ready for a “Woman President”. It’s even ready for an “African American President”.
But, if we are going to have a first, shouldn’t it be a really good one?
Do you want your gender (or race, for that matter) to be represented by someone who will be such a good President that generations to come will say, “That was great! Let’s do that again!”
Or are you so desperate for ANY woman to be elected President that you are willing to elect someone who will make generattions to come say, “Let’s not do that again any time soon.”
We already had a first white male President (Washington) who set the bar really high as an example to everyone else.
Shouldn’t the first woman (or minority) at least be able to meet that bar or set a higher one?
With Congress approaching single-digit approval ratings, how is Nancy Pelosi doing in representing Women as the First Female Speaker?
Is she setting an example of integrity, sympathy, and all the best traits of women?
Or is she displaying pettiness, vindictiveness, and all the worst traits of women?
Will Hillary display the kindness, caring, and sensitivity that embodies the best maternal instincts?
Or will she embody all the nasty traits that make a woman think of her mother-in-law and a man think of his obnoxious ex-wife?
Also, since Bill and Hillary have repeatedly claimed that Bill was the “First Black President”, does that mean that Barak Obama is auditioning to be the Second?
lgm,
Blue Dog Democrats were the ones that picked up the most seats, not Liberal- Code Pink Democrats. They were elected for “accountablity” remember checks and blances? There was no mandate to end the war, that is anti war rhetoric, if you repeat it enough times, and the MSM picks up the leftist talking points, for ratings? will it make it true? Not so far.
I think George W Bush, wanted the Legislature to be more blanced, I think that is why he waited till after the Nov 2006 Election, to get rid of Rumsfield. George W Bush, isn’t a dumb politician and even if the Left keeps repeating that over and over again, it won’t make that True either. Why do you suppose the Democrat canidates came out and stated that troops were going to be in Iraq at least until 2013. Hint- they discussed it with George W Bush. It’s called American Politics.
On most things that is right on. Bridge to Nowhere, Le Tour De Sheets.
However, the funding provided by Congress for the Pentagon to train, equip and deploy the armed forces is crucial to our national security, and must be passed if we are to defeat the enemies that are at war against America. Similarly, the intelligence community must be supported by Congressional appropriations if we are to know how, when and where to deploy the armed forces to defeat our enemies.
This is why the Democrats try to tie Defense spending bills with their porked up pet projects. “If you are against the Woodstock Hippie Museum, you are against the troops!”
We know who supports the troops and who does not. We know who is serious about defeating our enemies and who is not.
Will they elect Sheehan? She is running against Pillosee – right?
LGM:
Thnaks for the laugh! I love your humor because nobody can believe what you said – really. Oh were it true Liberals and dimocraps acted like Republicans.
Notice to ALL!
The misnomer that the United States is a “Democracy” is as wrong as wrong can ever get.
We were founded as a Federal Republic utilizing Democratic Principles.
There is a major difference and differentiation to be applied here.
Look it up.
It’s Halloween and the Trolls are out early.
#26,
LMAO!
Brian72 – #23. I agree – however, the pentagon knows this as do the members of congress and both of them repeatedly request and get all kinds of things not in the interest defense now or in the future.
Hence a need for a line item veto. (Although with that said, it could cut the other way if say heaven forbid John Kerry had been elected with his staunch anti-defense positions. He’d have accepted the pork and killed the main item in the bill).
Do they mean to say that Pelosi made some campaign promises that she couldn’t deliver on? Gee, I thought that once only slightly more than half of the voters who bothered to turn out to vote in one congressional district voted for a liberal female, and that female was selected as Speaker of the House, then she could do whatever she wanted. To hell with checks and balances, Nancy should get what she wants. (sarcasm off)
Pelosi out, Cindy Sheehan in!
The less Pelosi does… the more I approve of her.
lgm
Thanks … you just admitted that the Dems got elected under false pretenses
Wow. That’s gotta hurt coming from lgm. That’s gonna leave a mark on Nancy
Yes, whenever you have a massive government structure, politics and waste will divert funds into the pet projects that aren’t necessarily for the overall good. This has to be fought whenever possible. Unfortunately, since the Constitution involves
Congress in this process, politics are inevitably involved with Defense policy.
Our defense industry does need to be sustained, because there is a pool of talent, knowledge and skill that is perishable. See the debate about our submarine force. Many say we don’t need these expensive platforms anymore. Down the road 20 years, we might again. Where will we get them if we let our sub manufacturers atrophy and close down? Could we restart that industry?
The debate about the F/A-22 Raptor,
CV-22 Osprey, and F-35 Lightning II is all about the monetary cost. What about the cost of lives of our airmen, fielding the 30-40 year old platforms?
Good point about John F’n Kerry. If you recall, in the 1980′s Kerry fought tooth and nail against the Reagan defense build up. He tried to get most of the weapon systems that are crucial today cancelled before they were even ready.
Some examples:
B-1b Lancer
B-2 Spirit
M-1 Abrams tank
Bradley Fighting Vehicle
Apache Attack Helicopter
I’m sure there were more. If Kerry had his way, none of these programs would have been funded. What would we be fighting the terrorists with today?
I forgot to mention John F’n Kerry’s support for the shockingly stupid “Nuclear Freeze Movement”. All of the ballistic missile programs, and the Strategic Defense Initiative were a boondoggle to him also. Nevermind the nuclear armed communist empire determined to dominate the world with their socialist tyranny.
No big deal to Kerry. His buddy Teddy “the swimmer” Kennedy actually tried to enlist Yuri Andropov to appear in a campaign commercial to convince Americans that the “Soviet threat” that Reagan was determined to defeat was “right-wing propaganda”. That was to be a Democrat Party anti-Reagan campaign ad, starring the former head of the KGB, and current Premier of the Soviet Union. Just for the 1984 Walter Mondale/Geraldine Ferraro ticket.
Nothing to see here folks. What Cold War? Socialism isn’t bad, the Soviets just aren’t doing it right. Heh.
Exactly. Republicans lost not because they acted like Republicans…but because they acted like Democrats.
And our President is guilty of that, too.
We need a REAL return to the social, fiscal, and federal conservativism that will keep America safe, prosperous, and successful.
Brian: I agree. My comment was kinda directed at the Navy trying to build a stealth surface ship. Don’t they already have stealth ships – they call them submarines. But nonetheless – they will spend billions attempting it. What they will get is a big gray ship, not very visible to radar but still extremely easily found, identified and tracked.
Meanwhile Pelosi is down here in Austin TX learning about our city government’s new intrusions into our personal standards of living, all for the benefit of global warming. She says similar legislation will be forthcoming on the Hill. Look out.
They should come out and name another post office. At least they can claim progress then.
Slightly OT – That reminds me – where’s Kerry’s service records?
Back On Topic – I wonder what her poll numbers are in Syria.
Spoken like a true submariner.
Not to get off topic here, but the last time I checked, the terminal guidance of most surface-to-surface or air-to-surface weapons was radar. We skimmers could benefit from stealth technology too. Once you get close enough to observe something visually, you have already been targeted. And show me a submarine going 30+ knots, and I’ll easily show you a submarine.
Let’s get back to the good news, that the Dems are discouraged, and there is dissention in their ranks.
Anyone notice the Socialist Democrats keep pushing their agenda while their approval ratings continue to drop? I don’t have the old numbers for the Republican run congress that lost power but I can’t imagine their ratings were any lower than today’s Socialist Democrat run congress under Nancy and Harry. Talk about a Do Nothing Congress.
The Republican party learned a harsh lesson and have been trying to dig their way out since. Those that abused their office and lost their conservative way had to be cut off. If they return to the ideas that most normal Americans value they can easily take back congress and the presidency from a group of Socialist Democrats that are wrong on every important issue this country faces. Americans wants leaders that believe in THIS country and OUR values – not whinny Harry and Nancy San Francisco’s government of the Socialist, by the Socialist, and for the Socialist.
“voters here are not seeing any change”—Did they really expect to?Shame on them.How can they expect a bunch of do nothing Socialists to change things when it is in their nature to Do nothing?Except find ways to spend other people’s money.Thankfully for the rest of us this Congress is so incompetant,or we would all be buying prayer rugs–or be dead.Nancy ,cover your head.Better yet,your face.
“turning on Pelosi”
There is a joke here, but I refuse to make it.
Preview has been freed!!!
The People have prevailed.
(Now I have to go kick the crap out of myself for sounding like a moonbat.)