I just read this lede on MSNBC.com, and I was pretty shocked.
An increasingly confrontational President Bush on Friday vetoed a bill authorizing hundreds of popular water projects even though lawmakers can count enough votes to override him.
Bush brushed aside significant objections from Capitol Hill, even from Republicans, in thwarting legislation that provides money for projects like repairing hurricane damage, restoring wetlands and preventing flooding in communities across the nation.
Why would Bush veto funds for hurricane damage repair? Why would he block legislation that would fund the Army Corps of Engineers, that would provide funding for needed infrastructure to protect homes and businesses from flooding? Especially after so many recent environmental disasters? I can only come up with one reason...
He wants to be an ass.
He wants to be a prick, to assert that he's powerful (in an attempt to feel relevant).
Why on earth would he even oppose most congressional Republicans on a bill that will help families and businesses devastated by past and potential disasters?
He gave pathetic PR-driven response to Hurricane Katrina. And yet, he still has the nerve to veto this bill, which would help so many people.
Harry Reid said it well:
More than two years after failing to respond to the devastation and destruction of Hurricane Katrina, he is refusing to fund important projects guided by the Army Corps of Engineers that are essential to protecting the people of the Gulf Coast region.
He doesn't veto this important legislation simply because he wants to be able to look down his nose at Congress and act like he's the responsible one. It has nothing to do with being fiscally responsible. (Damn, for Dana Perino to even utter the term "fiscally irresponsible" is beyond reprehensible).
He's vetoing this important leglislation simply because he wants to feel like he's not a lame duck.
It's surprising to me that this will be Bush's first veto override. I would have thought his ridiculous veto of SCHIP would have been the first override. But, it seems that many Republicans who will sell out middle-class uninsured children will suddenly find their "conscience" to cross the President on this issue. Who knows why - maybe due to pet projects in their districts... or perhaps because they know they need the votes for 2008, and there is no reasonable excuse for Bush's veto of this legislation. Whatever the reason, the votes appear to be there to override this veto. Let's hope it is the first veto override in a series of them. Afterall, I don't see any reason Bush will refrain from vetoing every reasonable piece of legislation the Democratic-controlled Congress sends to his desk. It fits his behavior pattern.
Let's hope that Congress learns that crossing the President when he is flat-out wrong is an honorable thing to do.
George W. Bush has proven that he has no interest in governing our nation well. He has no interest in helping the country to be great, to help our nation's people to have a better life. He just wants to throw around his veto power simply to flaunt that he's in control.
Pathetic.