If they can't get this through on override, what good is this Congress?
That goes for the stinkfuck Repuglicans, too, who need to bail from this president AND come around on IMPEACHMENT and CONVICTIONS!
We, as a country, must stand up for humanity and the rule of law!
"House fails to override veto of SCHIP; Democrats vow to continue pushing a bill" by Sasha Issenberg/Boston Globe October 19, 2007
WASHINGTON - House Democrats failed yesterday to override President Bush's veto of a bill to expand a children's health insurance program.
The 273-to-156 vote in the House of Representatives was the latest in a series of setbacks faced by the Democratic leadership on key issues that it has championed. When Bush announced his veto of the insurance legislation nearly a month ago, Democrats were optimistic that the program's popularity would leave Republicans wary of standing with the White House.
Yet a major push by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, advocacy groups, and unions proved unable to convert a single Republican who had voted against the bill on Sept. 25.
Pelosi promised to return a new bill to the White House within two weeks.
[You couldn't override on this extremely popular item with all the media. etc?
The loss just proves how IRRELEVANT CONGRESS IS!!!
And yet, the MSM tries to make us believe it is Bush who is irrelevant.
He's not only relevant, he's the only game in town.
This Congress is WORTHLESS!!!
All they ever pass is NON-BINDING resolutions, and now they can't even do that (Turkey)]
The bill would expand the State Children's Health Insurance Program by $35 billion with a goal of covering 10 million children from lower-income families. Republican critics said the program was a move toward "socialized medicine" by extending coverage to middle-class families and illegal immigrants.
White House Press Secretary Dana Perino said Bush was pleased with the House's vote to sustain his veto and called upon Congress "to stop playing politics and to join the president in finding common ground to reauthorize this vital program."
In a news conference after the vote, Pelosi said Democratic leaders would "be ready to sit down with the president about where we go from here."
[Isn't she something?]
Elsewhere, Democrats suggested that the original legislation had required significant compromise to pass both chambers - in the case of the Senate with a veto-resistant majority - and they were unlikely to go further.
[So NO HEALTH CARE for some kids and people who need it!
But we got BILLIONS to WASTE in WARS!
And what about the "SICKO" debate?
Amazing how the power of BIG MEDIA shut that all down!
Where is my NATIONAL HEALTH CARE like the rest of the "civilized" world?]
Members of both parties argued that public opinion was on their side, and repeated poll numbers like mantras to bolster their cases. Democrats turned to survey data saying that 82 percent of Americans supported the bill, [including 70% of REPUBLICANS!] while Republicans emphasized a poll suggesting an 11 percent approval rating for Congress.
[Congress is down, yes, but it is not because we like you, stoo-pid shit Republicans!
You fascistas are worse than DemocraPs!!!
I'm just frustrated with them; I hate you guys now!]
Representative James P. McGovern, a Massachusetts Democrat:
"[My party should force Republicans to vote] again and again and again and again on the issue. The president of the country and their leadership are holding a gun to their heads, saying, 'Don't do it.' I think the American people are sick of their obstructionism."
[Wish you guys had felt that way about war-funding and a withdrawal time-line.
Why didn't you keep sending that to him, like WE -- the American people -- WANTED?]
The Democrats, despite majorities in both chambers, have been stymied in efforts to stop the Iraq war and expand funding for stem cell research. Yet they vowed to use yesterday's defeat to galvanize Democratic voters who might be disillusioned by the losses.
Representative Patrick Kennedy, a Rhode Island Democrat:
"I think we have to explain to our base that the size of our vision can only be expanded through the size of our majority. I tell them it's not good enough to have a majority, but a working majority."
[I'm not buying that, because we elected you all to STOP the WAR and CHECK this president, and you have done nothing but roll over and butt-prop!
In some ways, the Dems HAVE BEEN WORSE than the Republicans!]
Forty-four Republicans joined the majority in voting for the override, while two Democrats - Gene Taylor of Mississippi and Jim Marshall of Georgia - sided with GOP leadership in voting against it.
Meanwhile, six Democrats who had opposed the bill last month voted for it yesterday.
Presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich of Ohio:
"I disagreed with the Democratic position in that they left out six million immigrant children. I disagreed with the president's position because he wants to leave out all the children."
"House Sustains President’s Veto on Child Health" by ROBERT PEAR and SHERYL GAY STOLBERG
WASHINGTON, Oct. 18 — The House on Thursday upheld President Bush’s veto of a bill to provide health insurance to 10 million children, but Democrats vowed to send it back to him next month, with minor changes, in the belief that they could ultimately prevail.
Despite a multimillion-dollar advertising campaign and intense lobbying by children’s advocates, supporters of the bill were unable to convert a single House Republican who voted against the bill last month.
[It's known as LOSING, which the DemocraPs are quite used to!]
The insurance vote stands as the latest example of how Mr. Bush can still get his way on Capitol Hill. Through artful use of veto threats and his veto pen, Mr. Bush has fended off attempts to force a change of course in Iraq — a feat Democrats would never have imagined when they pushed Republicans out of power a year ago. He has twisted Democrats into knots over domestic surveillance, and forced them to rethink a resolution condemning as genocide a century-old massacre of Armenians.
[Yeah, kind of like a... DICTATORSHIP?!?!]
The outcome on Thursday, reminding Democrats of the limits of their power, came as Congress and the president prepared to square off over a dozen spending bills needed to finance the government in the new fiscal year. President Bush has threatened to veto at least 10 of those measures, while also holding the Democrats responsible for not acting more quickly on the bills, which were supposed to be enacted by Sept. 30.
At the White House, aides to Mr. Bush said they took heart that enough Republicans were willing to stand with the president to keep the veto intact.
Tony Fratto, the deputy White House press secretary;
“This isn’t the last fight we’re going to have where Democrats will try to put forth legislation that is populist or will tug at the heart strings. Is it a good day? No. A good day will be the day that we pass legislation that the president can sign. But it is gratifying to know that we’ve got Republicans with sufficient backbone who are willing to stand tall and fight on principle in order to get the policy right.”
[Yeah, that tugging on heartstrings never works, but FAKE FEAR coming from the Stink House is GREAT, 'eh, Tony?
And, sorry, Sig Heil!]
But some Republicans, like Representative Thomas M. Davis III of Virginia, who was chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee when Mr. Bush ran for election in 2000, were furious with Mr. Bush for putting them in such a difficult spot on children’s health.
Mr. Davis, who voted to override the veto and predicted that Mr. Bush would ultimately be forced to sign a measure similar to the one he rejected, and is contemplating a race for the Senate:
“He’s not going to get his way on this, and he’s jeopardizing people’s careers.”
[He doesn't give a shit! And this makes me think that martial law is in the works!]
Democrats are seeking ways to revise the bill to answer criticism from Republicans who said it did not focus enough on low-income children. Chances for a quick compromise with the White House looked slim.
Tempers flared when House Democrats compared Mr. Bush’s veto of the child health bill with his support for the war in Iraq.
Representative Pete Stark, the California Democrat who is chairman of the Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health, told Republicans:
“You don’t have money to fund the war or children. But you’re going to spend it to blow up innocent people if we can get enough kids to grow old enough for you to send to Iraq to get their heads blown off for the president’s amusement.”
[He's being attacked as I would expect; however, I LOVE STARKIE!!!!
He said EVERYTHING that I HAVE FELT for a LONG TIME!!!
And then, he DIDN'T BACK DOWN!!!!
All right, Pete!
You just found yourself a supporter, dude!
And it looks like I'm NOT ALONE!]
