Posted on 10/21/2015 8:45:01 AM PDT by Kaslin
We've been critical of Republicans' chronic inability to thrust political predicaments upon Senate Democrats and President Obama by forcefully spotlighting risky, unpopular filibusters, and forcing politically painful vetoes. Progress on these fronts has been maddeningly rare, though not nonexistent. With additional Democratic obstruction efforts afoot, the GOP now appears poised to require presidential vetoes on measures that would gut much of Obamacare and defund Planned Parenthood, via a budget maneuver known as reconciliation. But perhaps their best opportunity to draw political blood, or even win, is on a showdown involving the National Defense Authorization Act, which large bipartisan majorities have now sent to Obama's desk, directly challenging a veto threat:
Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) announced Monday that he will sign the 2016 defense policy bill on Tuesday, setting in motion the 10 days that President Obama will have to follow through on a promised veto. Boehner's signing will be attended by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), respective Senate and House Armed Services Committee Chairmen John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Mac Thornberry (R-Texas), and other lawmakers in a theater vignette meant to underline the importance of the legislation. President Obama has threatened to veto the bill, which authorizes Pentagon funding and programs for 2016, because of a larger spending fight with Republicans. GOP leaders want to make the veto as public and painful for the president as possible.
The House and Senate recently passed this annual bill with significant bipartisan majorities and theyll send it to Mr. Obama as early as Tuesday. The NDAA is a policy bill that contains major military reforms and authorizes $612 billion in national defense spending, though that money would have to be appropriated separately. The bill matches Mr. Obamas budget request for an increase of $38 billion above federal budget caps for military spending. The NDAA does this by allocating the money through an Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) fund, which isnt subject to the budget caps. The President calls this a budget gimmick, which it is, but that hasnt stopped Mr. Obama from requesting his own OCO funds when it suits. The point is that this is $38 billion Mr. Obama requested, and that the military needs. The Presidents real goal is to force Republicans to break the caps on non-military domestic spending. His veto threat explains he will not fix defense without fixing non-defense spending. So he admits that hes willing to squeeze a military that is fighting the likes of Islamic State unless he gets more for Head Start, job training and employment services and welfare programs...The bill contains other important provisions, including funds to provide military aide to Ukraine in its defense against Russian separatists, new money for ballistic missile defense, and a military pay raise.
On the rare occasions—four times—that a President has vetoed a defense authorization bill, he did so over a specific policy dispute. In 1988 Ronald Reagan vetoed a bill that slashed missile-defense funding. George W. Bush vetoed the NDAA in 2007 over a provision allowing plaintiffs lawyers to freeze Iraqi assets in U.S. banks for use in lawsuits brought by the victims of Saddam Hussein. Mr. Bush argued those assets would be vital to Iraqs ability to rebuild. Congress struck those provisions and returned the bills for signature. The NDAA has passed for 53 years in a row, making it a rare display of bipartisanship. It passed the Senate this year with 70 votes, including 21 Democrats, and the House with 270 votes, including 37 Democrats.
Wait....I will read the article, but right out of the gate I know the headline must be wrong.
The GOP is going to challenge BO on something?
If this was up to Boner, Urkel would just be pulling out right about now
Holy crap. Will NHL games be played in Hell this season?
Obama will sign the bill after everything which would cause a veto is stripped out. And that would happen probably late Friday night, especially with Hillary or Uncle Joe dominating the news cycle.
Yes. Maybe we should chip in to buy season tickets for some of our least favorites in DC?
Obama is now openly trying to destroy America. No more nonsense about “change”, now he is no longer even pretending to be an American.
He vetoed the NDAA today.
Well duuh, what did the Gop expect? Like i it’s a surprise
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