Bush vetoes ignored by US Congress

Bombay News.Net
Thursday 22nd May, 2008

President Bush's diminished status has never been so obvious, with the US Senate ignoring his vetos on important legislation.

The Senate has just added tens of billions of dollars for veterans and the unemployed to Bush’s Iraq war spending legislation.

It has also ignored a Bush veto on an important farm bill.

For the Iraq bill, the Bush administration requested $850 million for international food aid, $1.9 billion for military construction projects, and several billion dollars in various foreign aid programs.

But, Congress has added more than $10 billion to the bill for various domestic programs, including an $8.2 billion for Hurricane Katrina and other natural disasters, with $5.8 billion for levees around New Orleans and $348 million for restoration of Mississippi coastal islands.

25 Senate Republicans abandoned the White House and voted to extend jobless benefits by 13 weeks and boost the GI Bill to provide veterans enough money to pay for a four-year education at a public institution.

Congress also enacted a massive farm bill Thursday with new and bigger subsidies for farmers and more food stamps for the poor.

Once again, Congress over-rode President Bush's veto for only the second time during his seven years in office.

The money will pay for nutrition programs such as food stamps, which would see increases of around $1 billion a year.

About $40 billion is for farm subsidies and almost $30 billion would go to farmers to leave their land open for other environmental programs.

The bill will also cut a per-gallon ethanol tax credit for refiners from 51 cents to 45 cents.

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