Senate expected to override Bush veto on water projects bill; Update: 79-14, override successful
Update: Here’s the link to the roll.
Update: Vote was 79-14.
12 Republicans voting against:
Allard
Burr
Brownback
Coburn
DeMint
Ensign
Enzi
Gregg
Kyl
Sessions
McConnell
Sununu
Just 12.
2 Dems against the override:
Feingold
McCaskill
Feingold – Agaist the override, for Mukasey. Man, is she going to get it from the nutroots.
Whoops. My bad. That’s Feingold, not Feinstein.
Update: Senate roll is not up yet, but the override was successful.
***
Looks like even some of the staunchest fiscal conservatives in the Senate will be voting to override President Bush’s veto of the pork-laden water projects bill. They’re debating (rationalizing, whatever) now on the Senate floor.
If the motion passes by a two-thirds margin, which seems almost inevitable, the water projects bill will become law, marking the first override of a veto by Mr. Bush.
The House voted 361-54 Tuesday to override the veto, well above the two-thirds majority needed.
The Senate passed the bill in September by a vote of 81-12, drawing just the fifth veto of the Bush presidency.
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Categories: Pork
Pundit & Pundette
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In congress, fiscal conservative means that they only spend 10 billion on useless projects instead of 12 billion. When will we get people who don’t treat taxes as their own personal checkbook?
Clear why Republicans are in the minority, and they plan to stay there.
The bill provides much needed government money to the State of Georgia where they just experienced a Catagory 4 drought. This money is critical so that we are better prepared in the future.
No surprise to see Congressional members line up to support this bill.
President Bush got it wrong on this one.
Are you going to deride the GOP for this Ms. Malkin?
the problem is ‘career’ politicians and lobbyists. unless something is done to prevent and/or curtail these two we will continue as the tax slaves to these elitists.
God, we need a miracle!
I wish I had a time machine and could go back to our founding fathers and let them know to put term limits into the Constitution, as well as outlawing lobbying..geesh
Forget about the earmarks…Why is it the business, and the expense of taxpayers, to fund water projects in states? Don’t they have their own budgets for that? It’s more of “let’s make a deal” to buy votes with tax dollars.
DarkNight, why do people in the other 49 states have to pay for Georgia’s water problem? Doesn’t Georgia have taxpayers and their own government?
And don’t forget the Line Item veto while you are at it! That one ability, alone, could be used to great effect to remove pork from otherwise good bills.
Ray Nagin’s probably thinking “what to do, what to do with all these monies…”
I read that one of the reasons why Bush vetoed the bill is that the Army Corp of Engineers would be strained by this effort as delineated in the bill…
DarkKnight, coining your own phrases: “Category 4 drought”. Georgia didn’t just experience anything.
At issue is how much water the Army Corps of Engineers should capture in federal reservoirs near the head of two river basins in north Georgia that flow south into Florida and Alabama.
#3 Dark….ummm…I usually drink water, not dollars. Sending dollars to GA doesn’t give a single person any liquid. DUH
Frist time posting – thanks for allowing me to sign up, Michelle!
Does it bother anyone else that that MSM always refers to President Bush as Mr. Bush (as above) but they still say President Clinton? Talk about bias…
orlandocajun gets it right. The federal government isn’t supposed to be giant insurance company to fix any bad thing that happens. People, cities, and states are supposed to prepare for bad things so that people(taxpayers) with no stake in the problem don’t have to pay for fixing it.
All it takes is for a few outspoken Republicans to stand up and shout No, dang it! I will not overspend the taxpayers’ hard-earned cash any more!
Any senator out there with guts? Any with courage? Any with a shred of domestic patriotism? Didn’t think so.
What a bucket-full of lawmaking thieves.
Outlawing lobbying would require modifing the First Amendment:
The president used to have the ability to simply not spend all the money. Congress took that away, back in 1974. Instead of a Line Item Veto, I want Impoundment made an explicit Executive Power.
This was an easy bill to pass. It is a 2 Billion dollar tax cut!
You armchair politicians just don’t get it.
/sacr off – duh
I think that we need a constitutional amendment to outlaw earmarks, period.
Did you know that there were almost 10,000 earmarks in 2006, averaging about 3 million dollars each?
If any of these projects are worth the federal money that is spent on them, then let the requestors defend them publicly in separate bills.
No swimming pigs? No flying pigs? No pigs in a blanket? No Hamnation?
Que pasa, Michelle?
Wow… so let me get this straight..
They are gonna vote for this crap, adding 9 or 10 billion…
While at the same time they pulled the 3 Billion out of the Defense Bill that was for Border Enforcement?
Yep… priorities…
#7 30 pcs of silver:
“At issue is how much water the Army Corps of Engineers should capture in federal reservoirs near the head of two river basins in north Georgia that flow south into Florida and Alabama.”
I think you are correct.
I have the impression that the “Army Corps of Engineers” (in other words, the Federal government) is holding back water “in federal reservoirs [there's that Federal government, again!] near the head of two river basins in north Georgia that flow south into Florida and Alabama.”, because of the desire to maintain optimum conditions for wildlife in areas downstream (I’d heard in Florida) from the dams in north Georgia.
Maybe I’ve got it wrong…but, it sure sounds as if government, yet again, has screwed something up; and, instead of reversing itself, admitting its error, and removing a problem or impediment; is simply trying to extract yet more money from us.
In other words, not only is the government making a bad situation worse by holding back the water; it is making the worse situation worse still, by sucking more money from us.
Could this be another example of big government’s thinking: “The building is on fire! Quick, more gasoline!!”
(Whether the government started the fire itself, as is not unheard of, is immaterial.)
Aarrrggghhhh!!!!
Big government: So often wrong, but never – never – in doubt.
(And, preview has stopped previewing again.)
Spending for things you don’t like (rebuilding a Democratic city damaged by a a hurricane), that’s too expensive. Spending for things you do like (anti-missile systems that don’t work, invading Muslim countries), that’s our patriotic duty.
DarkKnight, I don’t think many people have a problem with helping Georgia out with their drought problems, the real problem with this Bill is all the Pork attached to it.
(my in-laws live in Georgia and it’s getting pretty dang bad.)
lgMoby
I don’t care if Jesus is your Senator or Congressman, you need to vote whoever it is out of office. Incumbents need not apply.
It’s about the pork. Such as Nancy Pelosi’s multi-million dollar real estate investments in a part of San Francisco that will benefit from Federal money (your money) to further improve San Francisco’s local waterfront and further enrich her and her family – on your dime. (Billions of dimes…) Vetoing this pork chop should have caused Congress to “trim the fat” and get down to serious national water-related issues and put out a reasonable bill the President would have signed.
Rebuilding a city in the same area that is sinking, so in 20 years we can rebuild it again?
Your right, I don’t want MY tax dollars to go to that.
I’m sure the children are involved.
More importantly, what about the Constitution? I’m just waiting for some ‘progressives’ to actually SAY that the Constitution is a nice idea, some guiding principles, but shouldn’t guide law.
El Diablo in South America shares their ideas about Constitutional mutability.
Oh my goodness you guys.
Oh perdon moi… The exact phrase is D4 Drought. Otherwise known as exceptional, a level not reached in over 100 years.
Graph here:
http://drought.unl.edu/dm/monitor.html
LOL, I’m going to assume you were just joking here. But to the best of my knowledge, the money is going towards federal preparedness for water reserves. That is what I’m taking away from the debate I was watching on C-SPAN. Anyway, I don’t think that Senator Isakson (R-Georgia) is going to get in the way of this bill.
For the record:
http://votesmart.org/issue_rating_category.php?can_id=1721&type=category&category=31
He is considered a “Taxpayer Hero” (90% rating) according to Council for Citizens against Government Waste.
http://councilfor.cagw.org/site/VoteCenter?location=S&page=congScorecard
And of course the kicker. The National Taxpayers Union. B+ (83%)
http://www.ntu.org/misc_items/rating/VS_2006.pdf
Based on the above citations, are you SURE about that?
I was gonna refute lgm word for word but then I remembered, when all words have variable meaning, I’d only be wasting energy making my fingers go up and down on the keys and we all know that the use of energy contributes to gorball warnings.
What other projects are they going to use this money for? I just dont get why all the Republicans have gone soft. What is our society coming to?
#26 conservativesRus:
LOL!!!
Democritters doing what they do best: expanding government, spending other people’s money, subverting the will of the people (sane one’s that is) and flaunting their hubris like Bill Clinton waves around a cigar.
Ouch. Just saw the vote. So you people only want to have 12 GOP members voted back into Congress?
Just wondering.
Brownback
I bet he voted against it because he already knew there would be an override of the veto.
meatpie,
On this one I find it hard to blame the donks when only 12 pubs have a clue. Darknight is wondering the right thing.
DarkKnight, I don’t think you’ve been paying attention. We need a complete overhaul of not only Congress but the State Department, the Senate, etc…
Didn’t sting quite as much as you hoped – huh?
Aided and abetted by their RINO enablers.
What a great day to pass this pig.
We’re $9 trillion in debt – that’s $9,000,000,000,000 – or in excess of $30,000 in debt for every man, woman and child in the United States.
The economy is choking, the Dow is stumbling, the dollar is as weak as most of us have seen in our lifetimes and we have 535 “popularly elected” representatives and senators in Washington that do this.
Is that smoke I see on the horizon? – oh wait, I’m listening to the fiddling on the banks of the Potomac…
If they can’t see the damage that they continue to cause, well, then as the saying goes…they don’t know ****…
from,
Shinola
#29 – dinner: Unfortunately it’s not only the dems…it was the whole lot of the Senate.
In answer to DK #30 – yep. Only 12 (R)’s deserve to be re-elected – and they are on probation. Any of the others that said they were against pork but then voted for it are hypocrites.
More importantly, what about the Constitution? I’m just waiting for some ‘progressives’ to actually SAY that the Constitution is a nice idea, some guiding principles, but shouldn’t guide law.
Christ wanted us to be stewards of this Earth.
Boy – leave Christ out of this.
Oh, gotta love spin.
So that would be over 30 RINO’s by my count according to your definition?
I appreciate the response Rus. But according to the statistics I quoted in post #26, if you didn’t vote the current GOP members back, you stand the possibility of losing a whole lot more than this one issue.
I leave Him out of nothing.
We leave Christ out of our lives at our own peril… :’(
It would be unwarranted optimism to hope that the bill contained funds to build a series of dams along the Rio Grande from Port Isabel to El Paso.
Southernboy – I think your theology there and biblical history is a bit out of whack. The instructions given to Adam regarding having dominion over the earth precede Christ by quite a few years.
b) What on earth does that have to do with the topic at hand? People that arbitrarily change the topic are known by a number of less than favorable names here. You might consider that prior to your next comment.
DK – a) The issue isn’t (D) or (R). It’s what is good for the country. Is that difficult to comprehend?
You are right – 30 (R)’s deserve to lose their office (as well as EVERY (D)). I know it won’t happen but that would be what is best for the country.
“Feingold – Agaist the override, for Mukasey. Man, is she going to get it from the nutroots.”
Umm, Michelle, you do realize that Sen. Russ Feingold is male, correct? And that he is not Sen. Diane Feinstein?
Feingold voted against the override. He opposes Mukasey.
Feinstein voted for the override. She supports Mukasey.
If you want to maintain any credibility, do yourself a favor and learn the names of Senators before you go around criticizing them, ok?
Boy – just one time.
You used Christ’s name in vain. It served no purpose and we know why you are doing this.
You no more speak for Christ than I do.
Add to the discussion or shut up.
Christ speaks for stewardship of this earth, does He not? I thought Christians would agree with His call for taking care of His creation?
$114 BILLION Federal dollars on Gulf Coast Katrina relief and you whine we don’t want to waste more money (the key phrase there is “protect programs that benefit their home states.“). How about youse guyz stop blaming Bush because the DEMOCRATIC Governor of LA and the DEOMCRATIC mayor of New Orleans were corrupt, incompetent, and blaming everyone but themselves for all the screw-ups that were completely their own fault. But they couldn’t fool the people on the ground.
As for “anti-missile systems that don’t work“, I guess you haven’t been paying attention, but then I guess you don’t see much with your head that far up…
Do you mean “invading Muslim countries, like Kosovo in Serbia? A place where the “Balkan war pits Serbs against Croats, some Croats against Bosnian Muslims, but mostly Serbs (Orthodox Christians) against Muslims. In 1992 “President Bush, later echoed by successor President Clinton, vows military action against Serbia if it begins similar “ethnic cleansing” operations in Kosovo.”
In 1995 “U.S. and NATO bomb Bosnian Serbs [emphasis added] to halt civilian massacres.” Or do we not count it when we attack Christians to protect Muslims?
Perhaps if you would stop reciting the Bush-bashing talking-points you might be taken seriously.
BTW – Michelle, thank you for opening up registration again so I may finally respond to idiots such as lgm.
LarryD, since when is the lobbying of today petitioning the government for a redress of greivances? Lobbying today consists of Foreign Entities pettioning our legislators for their (countries) concerns, i.e. Mexico. I believe that foreign policy belongs to the Executive Branch, not the legislative branch.
Lobbying today consists of Companies bribing our legislators. I realize they have interpreted this part of the Constitution as their right to exist, I dare say it is not. But a twist of the originators intent.
If you lobby, you had better be a constituent, that is all I am saying. That means your company is headquarted in the state or geographical constituency of the said legislator…
and, yes if the Republican is not fiscally conservative, then he/she is not a true Republican in my book. And, yes fire the lot!
southernboy = moby
He can’t help but show his true colors within a couple of posts…
Christ did not speak of stewardship of the earth. What scripture are you reading? Where pray tell did you twist that from?
I’ve read all the red, and it ain’t there!
southern boy, preachin again, tell me southern boy, do you preach for pro-choice or anti-abortion? cause that is conservation, too. conserving of human life.
I am strictly pro-life. Christ instructed us to value all of His creations.
conservativesRus, I comprehend just fine thank you. But given the amount of anti-Dem stuff on this site, it is slightly surprising to see “red-on-red” action.
Recall Ms. Malkin’s phrase:
el_perro,
error corrected. it was an honest mistake. you know, like when teddy kennedy mixed up obama and osama…
Ms. Malkin, do you agree with some of your readers that the 34 members of the GOP who voted “Yea” on this bill, do not deserve reelection?
But fortunately, not like when he mixed up driving and swimming… ;^)
Rush Limbaugh did it too…
Now the question was if THAT was an honest mistake.
El-Perro –
at least mistakes are admitted and errors get corrected.
LA Times, NY Times et.al.
Still waiting?
(bet you were just combing her post for some little tid bit to correct her on so you could run with the credibility argument, huh?)
ha!
Perhaps we should just refer to him as “B. Hussein Obama” to avoid any unfortunate similarity to Muslim terrorists, or other Islamic Jihadists?
Ya think?
el_perro, this your first time to this sight? obviously, you have no idea what credibility really is, as you’ve spent most of your time on the lib sights.
Michelle has set the standard for credibility, a minor gaffe is not a sign of lost credibility. The list clearly said Feingold. If Teddy can slip and say osama, when referring to obama, then surely a slip refering to FEINstein instead of FEINgold is not that big a deal.
And, when pointed to a gaffe, she immediately corrects, no ego no backpeddaling, just correction. That IS credibility.
When did Rush do that? Do you mean in the parody song which is actually making fun of Kennedy mixing the names up?
These guys are simply addicted to spending. After 7 years of spend, spend, spend, it’s hard to stop. This goes for both (R) and (D).
Bush would have been a terrible president to have the line item veto. He’s enjoyed spending as much as anyone.
Koas… nope. It was an eventually edited “accident.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2007/09/21/limbaugh-barack-obama-o_n_65375.html
For the record, Romney did it too.
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/10/23/romney-makes-obama-osama-gaffe/
Uh huh. It would be great to see a response from her to questions once in a while (see post #57). Or maybe from Rick Moran, who I would like to see an apology for predicting that the black professor placed the noose on her door herself, despite the fact she has been eliminated as a suspect.
Many conservatives, including BOR and MM, have said using Sen. Obama middle name for political purposes is not in play.
SHOCKA!!!
Not Voting – 7
Biden (D-DE)
Bunning (R-KY)
Clinton (D-NY)
Cornyn (R-TX)
Dodd (D-CT)
McCain (R-AZ)
Obama (D-IL)
Considering that Islamic Jihad (and associated terrorism) is probably the number one issue we face today AND given some of the crackpot comments by Mr. Obama as regards foreign policy, vis-a-vis Islamic states such as Iran and Pakistan, I would beg to differ.
DK – you obviously haven’t been paying attentino. MM’s blog commenters have often been very critical of actions taken by government officials of all stripes. I don’t pretend to speak for all of us – but I dare say most of us are interesting in GOOD governance, not necessarily (D) or (R). By and large here, we find the current crop of (R)’s that “we” elected, to be failing to do what “we” elected them to do and as such, they deserve to lose their job. It’s called accountability – something that libs apparently know little of.
I’m sure many others here will explain it for you if you have any questions about it.
I just called my senator’s office (Ensign-R, NV) and thanked him for his vote against the pork-infested water bill, and his press release of yesterday urging Congress to be better custodians of taxpayers’ money.
Ironic – a desert-dwelling senator is able to vote against a water bill on principle.
As we should be! Dissent is a symptom of a healthy democracy!
Thanks, sb! Spoken like a true moby!
Do you run more Statist or Anarchist?
I’m thinking Anarchist, given some of your other comments…
LOL PBC!
Christian.
Jesus Christ is my favorite dissenter.
Moby-boy:
Nobody on this blog is buying that one. Give it a rest.
You may not believe in Him, but He believes in you.
The $15 to 20 MILLION bucks that the Pelosi / peloser crime family alone will profit from this , we could help the Georgians with their water problems, if not remedy the situation, until at least it rains.
#77 – she will. her hubby increased his stake in those five properties by $4mm bucks the last time she tried to pass it at $20mm in July 2005. Now she’s speaker, he has increased investments and the bill goes through despite the Vito, er, I mean Veto.
Hubby’s properties will increase in value due to these improvements.
I am suprised the woman isn;t suffering an arterial clog with the amount of pork feasting shes been involved in over the years.
La Cosa Nostra of the San Francisco/Bay Area,.
I think that if you consistently do not vote, you shouldn’t be allowed to run for office. I think that on just about every vote put up on this site about controversial issues, Obama has not voted. Clinton hasn’t on most either, but I know she did with the Limbaugh Letter. Not certain about the rest, but bottom line, if you can’t take a stand on an issue, then you damn sure do not need to be the CEO of the government. The entire job is based on enforcement and decision making
I agree 100% Mr. Ekco!
Has Obama voted on anything? He is new enough in the game that I would think he needs to give people something to grasp onto when considering him as a candidate.
Is he running on the “anybody but a Republican” platform or the “I’m young and black” platform?
Ditkaca – Probably both platforms.
It seems every one of these democratic candidates is running against Bush though. I read the transcripts of the Republican debates and though to be fair I would read the most recent Democratic one and I just couldn’t do it. Five questions in everything was Bush’s fault and this administration had failed on everything. They shouldn’t be allowed to be senators if they do not know that it is Congress’s job to pass laws and the President’s to enforce them. Saying this administration failed to pass immigration reform is ignorant at best. (Atlhough thank God it didn’t pass).
And I would agree you would think he would want to be seen as standing for something, but he seriously shuns every vote.
As for his campaign, he comes off as completely without enthusiasm. And people talk about Fred lacking the “fire in the belly”.
Fact: hurricanes have storm surges of 20 feet or more.
Cool: building at 7 feet above sea level within 200 yards of shoreline.
Fiction: FEMA will save you.
Collorary: FEMA will save the USA money.
Promise: A brand new home/business every 20 years at a substantial discount thanks to Uncle BigSpending Sam.
Giddy Grasping Hands: Tapping into the Largess because we got Weather Too.
It could be worse. You could build a city below sea level. And then let the pumps lose power when you really really need them.
#82…secondsight….I’ll play. So how can you be so mean to all those children? I mean the ones who didn’t get aborted. Shouldn’t they get to live by the shore and get school lunches too? I mean, what’s a dairy farmer to do w/o the government helping him buy corn. The corn is only being used for ethanol. And we know we have to do that cuz Boosh wants to drill in Alaska and kill polar bears. But we plant trees in the rainforest to combat the gorball warnings that come from tsunamis. Tsunamis are really bad for coastal communities. Please send money to congress. You owe it to the children (and polar bears).
Thursday Greetings Mrs. Malkin and loyal community. As noted yesterday on this subject, that China, with the world’s largest foreign currency reserves, should now decide to move money out of the USA dollar and into the Euro must be a red light flashing to us that the USA is “maxing-out” on its national credit card. The gimlet-eyed world of global credit is exhausting its appetite for financing our profligate ways. Entitlements, pork-barrel projects, foreign entanglements: the day is near when we must learn to pay for all of them out of current tax revenues. This means that bright and early in the term of the next congress and administration, though it is not at all spoken of by candidates for offices, there must be a steep rise in taxes, or slashing of expenses, or combination thereof. The noise level must be very high in 2009 and thereafter. If it becomes a matter “don’t cut you, don’t cut me, cut that fellow behind the tree”, who is the fellow behind the tree? Candidates for the “fellow”, anyone? Or if it is a matter of increasing taxes, in what ways?
How amazing it will be in those days soon to come to recall when, right after 9-11, Congress and the Administration opened the trough of federal spending to every manner of “national security” claimant.
Welcome.
.
and
You are the FIRST to link to huffpo for verification on this site, maybe anywhere in the entirety of the blogosphere…
Hmmmmm.
oh hey, dark one…
Learn how to use the link thingy, please.
#79 Mr. ecko: the path to the white house almost never leads through the U. S. Senate. Senator Obama and that senator from NY know this. Its the voting record thing. Senator Obama must hope that if he has no record he can still take any position he wants. The senator from NY seems to rely on maskirovka for success; ie. total obfuscation.
What are you talking about? Both links work that I posted in post 65.
Shooter, fair point. The slip was documented in this article.
http://www.bostonmagazine.com/blogs/boston/2007/10/23/spanning-the-web-41/
[Post Chronicle] AUSTRALIA – Date Rape Drug Found On Australian Toys
“Five children in Australia and New Zealand have been hospitalized after eating Chinese-made toy beads found to contain the date rape drug GHB”
“Australia Tuesday recalled the Bindeez beads after two children in Sydney who ate the beads became drowsy or unconscious and had to be hospitalized”
#47, may I quote the doors vis a vis Feinstein and Feingold?
“…when you’re strange
no one remembers your name
when you’re strange…”
Well, it’s nice to see our own (Dem) Claire McCaskill here in Missouri voting against pork, if indeed that is her reasoning.
She goes up a notch on this one.