Congratulations to the Senate for passing Webb's economic and educational package for our nation's troops. More than half of the Republicans voted for it, defying their dear leader (a.k.a. Mr. 28%) due to plenty of little add-ons to the bill. Although the motion to start ending the conflict was voted down, this is considered major progress in that the Senate got something done that wasn't completely regressive in nature.
From Yahoo News:
The vote on the domestic add-ons was a rebuke to Bush, who has promised to veto the measure if it contains the domestic measures. However, the president still has enough GOP support in the House to sustain a veto.
The House still has to act on the bill. Last week, it voted to reject money for continuing the war. It endorsed the help for veterans and the unemployed, but kept its version clean of most other domestic programs.
The huge tally in the Senate was driven by $15.6 billion over two years to extend unemployment benefits by 13 weeks and more than $50 billion over the upcoming decade to provide returning Iraq war veterans with sharply increased college aid.
But dozens of add-ons favored by senators in both parties contributed to the unexpectedly sweeping tally that embarrassed the White House.
Embarrassing the White House is always nice. George Bush wanted the war funding bill to be free of excessive waste (such as helping our troops to pay for college) because frankly, all of these soldiers should be going back for their 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th tours in Iraq and/or Afghanistan, right George?. Seriously, how dare they want to better their lives? Now we all expect the President to veto this so he gets
Dear Senators and Members of Congress, this is the time of year we recognize Memorial Day and turning your backs (by a 2/3rds margin) on the President is the right thing to do for the troops in your state/district and for every man or woman that dons the uniform of our military.
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