This is about his ego. He is claiming that it is $10 billion more than he wants to see, but he is requesting $196 billion for his pet wars.
The bills did have bipartisan support, but not enough to override a veto, though that may change.
Category: Budget
Bush Water Bill Veto Overriden
The vote was 361-54, and the Senate is expected to override too.
This bill has broad bipartisan support, and big spender Bush vetoed it because he is having to pretend that he gives a damn about the budget to reinforce his own delusions of manhood.
Why this is significant is because once he is overridden, it will become progressively easier for it to happen in the future.
There are already reports that there is an S-Chip bill that will get a veto proof majority in the works. It gets much harder for the Republicans to whip the vote when they have already helped override a veto.
Congress to Override Water Bill Veto
The water bill is not the be all and end all of, but the fact that this veto will be overridden is. It’s pork, or course, but it will be interesting just what sort of bitchy fit the Avignon President will throw over this.
Charles Rangel Unveils Massive Tax Overhaul
Truth be told, this tax proposal is clearly more of an opening salvo than anything else. It serves a number of purposes:
- It is a revenue neutral proposal which lowers taxes on over half the polulation, which is good politics.
- It will reinforce the meme that the current tax system is broken.
- It shows how many tax loopholes the fat cats get.
- It puts the Republicans on defense, so now they can’t just mindlessly parrot “keep Bush’s tax cuts”.
This is probably the most important single bill we will see this session (Yes, I know about the war, and the warrentless wiretaps). To the degree that we increase the cost of obscene remuneration, we make it occur less frequently, and this reshapes our society.
The new gilded age we live in is largely an artifact of the social repercussions of the tax plans enacted by Reagan, Bush, and Bush.
Unconstitutional Republican Earmarks
The Congressional Research Servicw has released a memo about the constitutionality of Alaska Representative’s Don Young’s earmark on the Coconut Road Interchange in Florida’s Lee County, which benefitted some real estate contributors of the then head House transportation panel (Corruption from north to south and from east to west).
It was inserted after both houses voted on, and passed the bill, so it is an earmark that was never voted on by anyone in congress becomes “law” (there is an appeal to the Supreme court over this).
Seriously, Republican corruption is so twisted that your average snake would be unable to follow it.
George Bush: Objectively Pro Crime
George bush wants to chop more than $1.5 billion from the COPS program and other policing initiatives.
That’s what, like 46 hours of Iraq?
But safe streets, competent and well equipped police officers, locating missing children, rehabilitation programs, that’s bad, because it’s the “evil gummint”.
If George Bush had his way, there would be no public peace officers or firefighters. His model of a society is Blackwater in Iraq.
Deficit Balloons, Treasury Sales May Soar, Upping Interest Rates
The deficit is ballooning, and as a result, sales of Treasuries may increase by 50%.
This kind of shock to an already precarious bond market could send interest rates skyrocketing, as public and private compete in the market for capital.
If correct, and I am not an economist, we could see s significatn (more than 1%) increase in interest rates in the next 6 months.
Bushonomics.
Congress Grows a Set of Balls (FINALLY!)
Not only is this of limited utility and provocative, it’s being pushed because it’s provocative.
Lynn Cheney was trying to start a war with China in the early 1990s, and Francis Fukuyama said that during the 90s, “There was actually a deliberate search for an enemy because they felt that the Republican Party didn’t do as well”.
This is a calculated attempt to put a new enemy in the pipe line for Republican partisan advantage.
Senate threatens Bush missile plan
Ewen MacAskill in Washington
Friday July 6, 2007Guardian
President George Bush’s controversial plan to establish a missile defence system in eastern Europe could be scuppered next week if Congress votes to block funding.The Senate appears ready to join the House in cutting from the defence budget the millions Mr Bush requested to fund US missile bases in Poland and the Czech Republic. The president would have to use his veto to go ahead but that would put the whole defence budget in peril.
The Senate move would add to the lengthy list of obstacles that have built up to Mr Bush’s plan. A consequence would be to end the stand-off with Moscow, which views the missile system as a threat. Speaking on Monday at the Bush family retreat in Kennebunkport, Maine, the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, reiterated his opposition to placing the missile system so close to Russia. There is also opposition within Poland and the Czech Republic.
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