On Thur the Senate joined the House in an overwhelming majority to override the Bush veto of the The Water Resources Development Act authorizing projects "to rebuild the Gulf Coast after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, restore the Everglades and Great Lakes fisheries and build flood-control projects nationwide."
On a day when the Senate saw fit to kowtow once again to the President and the Republican minority, I would really like to cushion my profound disappointment by lauding them for this defeat over Bush's feigning fiscal responsibility over a $23 billion bill aimed at protecting millions of Americans from another Katrina while at the same time begging for $200 billion a year to keep his war of choice afloat. As Jack Cafferty was quick to point out, this from a President that has forced our country further into debt in just his first 5 years than all 42 administrations preceding him combined. The national debt has now surpassed $9 trillion (12 zeros). However, I would be remiss in not pointing out why Sens Russ Feingold and Claire McCaskill were the only two Dems to vote against it.
The sad reality is that this bill-now-law lacked sorely needed reforms to prioritize projects and since it "only authorizes projects and does not appropriate funds" ... "and with a limited annual construction budget of around $2 billion" it seems that most of these projects will never actually see the first dime spent on them, and the ones that do will not necessarily be the most needed.