Congress Votes For Defeat; Veto Assured
It is done. The Democrats have decided to play the game, and they are about to lose very badly. Today the Senate passed the withdrawal bill that the president has vowed he will veto:
A defiant Democratic-controlled Senate passed legislation Thursday that would require the start of troop withdrawals from Iraq by Oct. 1, propelling Congress toward a historic veto showdown with President Bush on the war.
At the White House, the president immediately promised a veto.
"It is amazing that legislation urgently needed to fund our troops took 80 days to make its way around the Capitol. But that's where we are," said deputy press secretary Dana Perino.
The 51-46 vote was largely along party lines, and like House passage of the same bill a day earlier, fell far short of the two-thirds margin needed to overturn the president's threatened veto. Nevertheless, the legislation is the first binding challenge on the war that Democrats have managed to send to Bush since they reclaimed control of both houses of Congress in January.
"The president has failed in his mission to bring peace and stability to the people of Iraq," said Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.V., chairman of the Appropriations Committee. He later added: "It's time to bring our troops home from Iraq."
The $124.2 billion bill requires troop withdrawals to begin Oct. 1, or sooner if the Iraqi government does not meet certain benchmarks. The House passed the measure Wednesday by a 218-208 vote.
Now I want readers to ask themselves a simple question. If you are in Congress, and you are facing a vote on this bill, would you vote in favor of it knowing that a veto awaits it from the president AND that you lack the two-thirds majority to override it? This was a crap shoot that the Congress lost. Not only do we still have the pork in this bill -- the bribes handed out to those needed to approve the bill -- but the timetables are still within it. The Democrats do not want to compromise with the president.
They have moved forward with the misnomer that the midterm elections gave them a green light to pull troops from Iraq, and that could not be further from the truth. The Democrats won because the Republicans twiddled their thumbs, accomplished little compared to their 2004 promises, and the people -- especially the GOP base -- got fed up with it. The base stayed home, refusing to vote for people that they believed wasted time and money doing nothing. And those not along partisan lines (moderates, independents, etc.) were sick of the Republicans inability to locate their spine, and fight back against emboldened, extremist Democrats.
So, the Democrats decided after the elections that they would do the best they could to lose this war as quickly as they could. In the meantime, they are acting no better than the Republicans did. Republicans in congress had a serious problem with pork spending, and the Democrats did precisely that in the bribe-laden withdrawal bill. The Democrats are not moving forward with any sort of new domestic agenda. There is no Social Security reform on the table. There is no legislation upcoming that would make the tax cuts permanent; the same cuts that are driving a record setting economy.
It seems that the only thing the Democrats are going to do with their power for the next two years is try to lose this war, hound the administration with meritless subpoenas and investigations, and possibly even an attempt to impeach the president. (I cite the last item because there are some rumblings on Capitol Hill about the possibility of beginning such proceedings; a proposition that is not only worthless, but without any hard, solid evidence of crimes having been committed.)
This is sick and disgusting. It is sending the wrong message to the world, especially to our enemies, and it is an embarrassment to the nation.
Marcie
A defiant Democratic-controlled Senate passed legislation Thursday that would require the start of troop withdrawals from Iraq by Oct. 1, propelling Congress toward a historic veto showdown with President Bush on the war.
At the White House, the president immediately promised a veto.
"It is amazing that legislation urgently needed to fund our troops took 80 days to make its way around the Capitol. But that's where we are," said deputy press secretary Dana Perino.
The 51-46 vote was largely along party lines, and like House passage of the same bill a day earlier, fell far short of the two-thirds margin needed to overturn the president's threatened veto. Nevertheless, the legislation is the first binding challenge on the war that Democrats have managed to send to Bush since they reclaimed control of both houses of Congress in January.
"The president has failed in his mission to bring peace and stability to the people of Iraq," said Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.V., chairman of the Appropriations Committee. He later added: "It's time to bring our troops home from Iraq."
The $124.2 billion bill requires troop withdrawals to begin Oct. 1, or sooner if the Iraqi government does not meet certain benchmarks. The House passed the measure Wednesday by a 218-208 vote.
Now I want readers to ask themselves a simple question. If you are in Congress, and you are facing a vote on this bill, would you vote in favor of it knowing that a veto awaits it from the president AND that you lack the two-thirds majority to override it? This was a crap shoot that the Congress lost. Not only do we still have the pork in this bill -- the bribes handed out to those needed to approve the bill -- but the timetables are still within it. The Democrats do not want to compromise with the president.
They have moved forward with the misnomer that the midterm elections gave them a green light to pull troops from Iraq, and that could not be further from the truth. The Democrats won because the Republicans twiddled their thumbs, accomplished little compared to their 2004 promises, and the people -- especially the GOP base -- got fed up with it. The base stayed home, refusing to vote for people that they believed wasted time and money doing nothing. And those not along partisan lines (moderates, independents, etc.) were sick of the Republicans inability to locate their spine, and fight back against emboldened, extremist Democrats.
So, the Democrats decided after the elections that they would do the best they could to lose this war as quickly as they could. In the meantime, they are acting no better than the Republicans did. Republicans in congress had a serious problem with pork spending, and the Democrats did precisely that in the bribe-laden withdrawal bill. The Democrats are not moving forward with any sort of new domestic agenda. There is no Social Security reform on the table. There is no legislation upcoming that would make the tax cuts permanent; the same cuts that are driving a record setting economy.
It seems that the only thing the Democrats are going to do with their power for the next two years is try to lose this war, hound the administration with meritless subpoenas and investigations, and possibly even an attempt to impeach the president. (I cite the last item because there are some rumblings on Capitol Hill about the possibility of beginning such proceedings; a proposition that is not only worthless, but without any hard, solid evidence of crimes having been committed.)
This is sick and disgusting. It is sending the wrong message to the world, especially to our enemies, and it is an embarrassment to the nation.
Marcie
posted by Syd And Vaughn | 12:25 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home