President Is Happy to Govern by Veto
President Bush is feeling newly empowered by threatening to veto legislation approved by the Democratic-controlled Congress.
The threats seem to be working with the lawmakers. They are rolling over very easily as they rush to get home for Christmas or to catch up on re-election campaigning.
When he had the backing of a Republican Congress, the president vetoed only one bill in his first six years in office; that bill would have expanded federal support for stem cell research.
But right now he is on a roll, getting what he wants without a veto pen but merely making the threat.
He was able to derail the Democrats yearlong attempt to set a timetable for a troop withdrawal from Iraq. Just before the holiday recess, the Senate approved an additional $70 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan — with no strings attached — which the president will sign.
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell boasted: “We have come to a very successful conclusion of this year’s Congress.”
The president, of course, is aided by the weak Democratic congressional leadership that has thrown in the towel without a fight, evoking disappointment among supporters who thought the last election that gave the Democrats a slight edge on Capitol Hill would make a difference.
It’s true that Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Majority leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., don’t have enough votes to overcome a veto. (The Constitution requires a two-thirds vote in both the House and Senate to override a veto.)
But why not put the spotlight on the GOP’s negative approach to the nation’s big problems?
The Democrats may have to pay politically for bowing to the White House too often and not having the stomach for a filibuster or stamina to keep the pressure on.
Bush or his aides or his Cabinet officers have raised the possibility that the president would veto more than 50 bills.
The will of the American people to end the mayhem in Iraq does not seem to matter to Bush, a political lame duck who obviously now feels free to pursue his conservative agenda without constraints.
You would think he would want to end his presidency with a clean slate and a path to peace.
The president also has said he would veto legislation that would require U.S. intelligence agencies to abide by the Army’s rules on interrogation. Those rules forbid waterboarding — a method of near-drowning — of prisoners during interrogation.
White House press secretary Dana Perino has claimed that the technique is permissible and legal when used by the CIA on “hardened terrorists.” The Geneva Conventions and human rights groups classify waterboarding as torture.
Among the other bills on the president’s veto agenda is a pending measure that would permit the federal government to negotiate lower drug prices with the pharmaceutical companies.
Current law forbids the government from seeking lower prices for medicine. Can you believe it?
The Democrats should force the Republicans to actually conduct a filibuster rather than cave in at the mere threat of a talk-a-thon. The voters then will know which party has supported the president’s agenda, such as his veto of expansion of child-health legislation. Bush said it was a step toward “federalizing medicine.”
Aides said the president is upset that the public might think he is against health care for children.
Also targeted for a veto is the whistleblower protection measure which gives legal protection to federal employees working in national security and those who work under government contracts. These whistle-blowers help expose waste, fraud and abuse involving U.S. tax dollars.
Still pending is the Foreign Intelligence Authorization Act, which covers the activities of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA) and other spying. Reid has delayed Senate debate on the controversial legislation until after the Christmas recess.
The bill would give retroactive immunity to telecommunications companies from lawsuits charging invasion of privacy for their role in cooperating with the administration’s warrantless wiretapping program.
Bush also signaled a veto on legislation that would overturn his executive order blocking the public release of President Reagan’s public papers. Bush’s father, George H.W. Bush, was vice president in the Reagan administration.
Someday the president may learn we have three equal branches of government and that Congress has a check on executive power.
Helen Thomas is a columnist for Hearst Newspapers. E-mail: helent@hearstdc.com.
Copyright 2007 Hearst Newspapers
and how easily they forget that his veto prevents our funding of his war.
let him veto the war to an end.
…and by the way…
www.wexlerwantshearings.com
Perhaps one day the Democrats will learn there are three equal branches of government and the Congress has a check on executive power, I hope, but I’m sure as hell not going to hold my breath.
Helen Thomas seems almost bored with it all, mailing it in. Everyone is so predictable. The sonatas are played on a children’s keyboard. Democrats cave. Bush vetos. Republicans Filibuster. Nothing of any meaning to the people ever gets done. On and on.
Poor Helen deserves a long vacation and an unending stream of accolades for putting up with this game and cutting through the crap for so many years.
No, the Republicans don’t filibuster. They merely threaten to, and the Dems cave.
Make them do it! Make them stand up against every bill they are against and talk. Make them wear diapers so that they don’t lose the floor.
You think that bunch of pampered overfed servants of the rich would actually stand up and work more than a 6 hour shift filibustering? Call their damn bluff!!
they hover like flies over a rotting corpse
ever ready
to swoop in
to deposit their speck of wisdom:
the only sensible course for the left is surrender.
they strike a pose of world-weary ennui.
they’ve been there
they’ve done that.
they know that all human striving for truth, justice and decency is futile.
they are compelled to explicate the imperfections of those strivings
and to trash those who strive.
the striving is a sham.
the proponents are frauds.
never a word about a better course.
never a suggestion on how to build on the efforts of others.
only the mantra that
“all is lost.”
so don’t anyone waste time trying to make things better.
instead go to disneyland,
go to the mall.
but, in fact the left is not dead,
it’s corpse in not rotting,
we face an unprecedented challenge, but all is not lost unless we come to believe that it is.
a mass movement must and will restore the rule of law and our Constitution.
so let the strong of heart
think and speak and write and organize.
let each and every contribute to the cause of freedom.
“The President is happy to govern”….
Ok stop right there. Using the word “president” would imply that bush was elected. He wasn’t. Therefore he isn’t the ‘president’, he’s a fraud.
Next the word ‘govern’ would imply leadership. Since bush has no leadership whatsoever, it is impossible for him to ‘govern’ anything. I wouldn’t trust him to park my car.
Whining about non existent fraud in the last elections will only cause you to lose the next ones.
Greaseman,
I would not bet the bombays that there was no election fraud. Georgia Boy, somebody been abusing that thang. Smells like tuna- tuna-fish.
OK, enough foolishness. Election fraud in Ohio is a slam dunk using statistics. The work is in the can — performed by Steve Rosenfeld, Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman.
If you have any intellectual integrity, you will seek out their work with an open mind.
Greg Palast has reported extensively on exactly how the Florida and Ohio elections were stolen in 2000 and 2004 respectively — both of which ended up selecting the wrong man for President, where the wrong man is the man who was not elected by the people.
The main story of Florida was illegal voter purging. In the beginning, it was a theory ridiculed as a conspiracy theory. Now, it is accepted as historical fact. The same should happen for Ohio 2004, which was about throwing away uncounted but legitimate provisional ballots, and other votes that were cast but never counted, including results that can only be explained by tampering with voting machines.
The idea that our democracy is in such a dismal state that our most important election has become fraudulent by default is extremely disturbing. It forces one to confront a lot of illusions about America being the beacon of goodness in the world.
Do yourself a favor, start down the path that is supported by fact and give up the fantasy that America is better than all other countries and beyond reproach.
That fantasy is most decidedly not supported by a massive pile of evidence showing the US to be simply the latest imperial thug, with corruption as foul as many third world countries.
Greaseman—-trolls are given the benefit of the doubt for about three posts here on CD. After that, look out. Do your homework, please, before you make any additional sweeping statements. Most all of us have, and we can spot those who only want to disrupt from miles off. This is a forum for discussion–but I can assure you that very few will engage with your remarks if they continue to reflect such uninformed views.
let reid make the republicans filibuster. it is the least he could do.
he just made a democratic presidential candidate filibuster for eight hours to prevent telecommunications companies from having retroactive immunity for spying on americans. i’m sorry i don’t have a chris dodd website for you.
People forget that all fiscal bills originate in Congress. The Dems only have to send Bush a bill on Iraq written on their terms, and not compromise. Say a funding bill that provides money for an extended evacuation of US personnel from Iraq and nothing else. Tell Bush sign this bill or no deal. The troops are not stupid. They will not engage the insurgents without the necessary logistics. I was in the military, and troops will not be engaging the enemy under-equipped or under supplied. What is Bush going to do? Tell the troops you have to stay? No Way! The troops would disobey the Commander-in-Chief EN MASSE.
So its not about vetos or filibusters. It is about sending Bush a bill and not talking or negotiating until he signs it.
redwriteman, you made the a valid point with Congress controls of the Money and it’s shameful that they don’t use that Power more wisely.
To impeach requires only a majority vote. While 2/3 of the Senate would be required for removal, it’s a sure bet that once all the dirty laundry–tons of it, and very dirty–comes out in public hearings, even some of the normally shameless Republicans would be forced to vote against Bush to save themselves politically. With intense public scrutiny focused on the mendacious rationale for the Iraq war, the abuses of power, torture, forced diappearances, war profiteering, lack of accountability for money and weapons, domestic spying and other outrages, we could reinstate accountability and the rule of law. The only things lacking are political will, courage and respect for the Constitution.