More War Money Please

...Actually I Don't Think He Said Please

Nevermind about that $35 billion for providing health care to 10 million children in the United States for the next 5 years. Remember the United States? Bush vetoed that faster than you can say "nukular".

And oh, by the way, give me $46 BILLION MORE FOR THE WAR IN IRAQ! It's an "emergency".

From Congress Daily, 10/22/07:

The amended foreign aid request in President Bush's supplemental package would fund infrastructure and development projects in Iraq and Afghanistan and extend to projects beyond the Middle East. That could provide Democrats with added leverage in their battle with Bush over unrelated domestic spending. Afghanistan is a major aid recipient in the amended request -- about $322 million would be for diplomatic operations there, including $160 million for construction of residential housing and the remainder to provide security for U.S. personnel. Another $100 million is included to help prepare for that country's elections in 2009 and $225 million for the central government to help extend its reach and build trust in outlying regions. The request would provide $115 million for power generators in Kabul and electric power in the northern part of the country and $5 million is for "reconstruction opportunity zones" to help build the economy. Another $50 million would be used to build a road from Kabul to Bamiyan in central Afghanistan, and $5 million is included to help protect Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

Iraq would receive about $239 million for the U.S. embassy in Baghdad, while another $125 million would go for economic aid, including $100 million for restarting state-owned enterprises and $25 million for a new private-sector development fund. Another $240 million is requested for Iraqi refugees, with about $160 million to aid refugees in Syria, Jordan and Lebanon, and $80 million to aid displaced refugees inside Iraq.

Well, as long as it's important...

Watch the CNN video.

UPDATE: Oct.23, 2007 - Bush’s Request for Wars Increases to $196 Billion

Representative David R. Obey, Democratic of Wisconsin, the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, criticized Mr. Bush for pushing the extra financing even as the president attacked Democrats as spendthrifts.

“It’s amazing to me that the president expects to be taken seriously when he says we cannot afford $20 billion in investments in education, health, law enforcement and science, which will make this country stronger over the long term,” Mr. Obey said in a statement.

“But he doesn’t blink an eye at asking to borrow $200 billion for a policy in Iraq that leaves us six months from now exactly where we were six months ago.”

Mr. Bush, appearing at the White House with veterans and relatives of soldiers, warned Congress to move quickly to approve the added spending, though he did not make his final supplemental proposal until three weeks into the fiscal year.

Screw The Kids

Mr. Compassionate Conservative has vetoed the S-CHIP bill.

The bill was approved by Congress with unusual bipartisan support, as many Republicans who side with the president on almost everything else voted to expand the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, or Schip, from its current enrollment of about 6.6 million children to more than 10 million...

Gov. Jon Corzine of New Jersey said: “Once again, President Bush has missed an opportunity to display compassionate leadership. Instead, he has resorted to political and ideological gamesmanship rather than seek a bipartisan solution that would protect this nation’s most vulnerable children.”

Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, said: “We have no choice but to try to override his veto. The Senate already has the votes to do it, so it is now up to the holdouts in the House to decide whether to vote their conscience or join the president in putting ideology above kids.”

The Senate voted with a veto-proof majority, 67-29. The House is a couple of dozen votes short of the two-thirds needed to override Raisinbrain's veto. Now we'll see what the Republicans are made of. Are they going to do what's best for their constituents or are they following the Pied Piper of Pissants down the road to unelectability?

And can we please stop saying that this bill is a step towards the "evil" of socialized medicine? If socialized medicine is so evil, then I defy any Republican elected official to stop using it. Let Bush go somewhere else to get his pre-cancerous polyps removed from is ass. Let Darth Cheney go to the local hospital to recharge his pacemaker batteries instead of going to Bethesda Naval Hospital. If this bill can help an extra 3.5 million children to receive health care, what's the problem? Do we seriously believe that a family of four pulling in about $50,000 a year before taxes can actually afford health insurance at a cost of $500-700 a month? If you do, do the math and stop kidding yourself.

Chasing the Chimp

I was away this past week, but here is what I've seen happening with Curious George just these last few days alone:

Bush, Mr. Compassionate Conservative, threatened to veto the S-CHIP Program, (State Children's Health Insurance Program). The legislation renews an effort to provide health insurance to children of America's working poor. But President Bush is threatening to veto the plan.

In the midst of the Minneapolis bridge collapse, Bush decided to blame Congress for not spending the discretionary highway monies in the budget properly while at the same time, is considering a fresh plan to cut tax rates for U.S. corporations.

Minnesota Republican Governor Tim Pawlenty had earlier rejected a 5 cent per gallon tax to help in funding road and bridge repairs.

When asked about the Pat Tillman case, in which seven separate Pentagon investigations have all been a dead end, Bush decides to look the other way and then invokes executive privilege dealing with the death of the soldier whose sacrifice this administration used in the drumbeat for war.

The House of Representatives passed a bill (HR 3159) which would guarantee troops as much time at home as they spend deployed. The vote count was 229-194 (191 Republicans and 3 so called Democrats whose days are numbered by this vote, no doubt).

The White House's response? The bill would “infringe on the president’s constitutional authority as commander-in-chief to manage the readiness and availability of the armed forces” and would “substitute the mandates of Congress for the considered judgment of our military commanders. If this legislation were presented to the president, he would veto the bill.”

And that's just the tip of the iceberg.

So let's recap: We can't afford to continue providing children in need with health care (approximately $7 billion a year over the next 5 years). We can't afford to rebuild our crumbling infrastructure, meaning dams, bridges, power grids, water supplies, etc., that are in desperate need of repair and are at critical conditions at the cost of $160 billion over the next 10 years. But we can afford $12 billion spent in Iraq monthly (close to $600 billion and counting that we know of), and we can afford more corporate tax cuts. They claim to support the troops, but won't give them much needed time at home, and earlier this year, the White House opposed a 3.5% increase in pay for the military. Now they are fighting a Democratic effort to restore full educational benefits for returning veterans, according to an official's comments last week.

Republicans at their finest, protecting billionaires in need. God, I hate these people.