The Errington Thompson Show 11/10/07
Faiz Shazir from Think Progress and the Center for American Progress is my guest. We discuss the top stories of the day.
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What is Senator Feinstein doing?
It is becomes very clear that telecoms just handed the Bush administration volumes of our information without a court order and in some cases without even a request. Senator Russ Feingold has spoken out against amnesty for lawbreakers. Interestingly, Senator Dianne Feinstein has come out and supported giving the big Telecoms a free pass. Doesn’t a free pass just encourage the Bush administration to break more laws?
MoveOn has started a grass roots effort to pressure Senator Feinstein into doing the right thing.
Note: The 10 year old that started one of the California fires will not be charged.
Countdown - another Bush veto
President Bush vetoed another bill this morning. It is unclear to me why except to use the old phrase - ‘cuz. Cuz? He vetoed a spending bill that included money for Healthcare, worker protections and education. Vetoed $606 billion. The National Teachers Union called the veto a “politically-motivated attack on children.” The president was more than happy to sign a Pentagon operations spending bill for only $459 Billion. Remember that this bill does not include any money for Iraq or Afghanistan. Cool ain’t it?
I do laugh at or cry, depending on my mood, at the president. He talks about being fiscally responsible but he gave several tax cuts in a time of war. He continues to pretend as if he couldn’t plan for next year’s needs in Iraq or Afghanistan. He asks for war money as supplemental spending. The president has never proposed any way of how to pay for the war. At least not that I have ever heard. He just keeps writing IOU’s and he’s the responsible spender. Please!
Oh, and I can’t forget to mention the fact that a new estimate of the cost of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan came out today. The estimate includes hidden costs like treatment of our veterans. So, the cost is only $1.5 trillion. $1.5 Trillion!!! That’s $20,000 per family of 4.
Look for the Dems and the R’s to work with the president to hammer out a bipartisan agreement over the next… I can’t even type this without laughing. Bush has no desire to hammer out squat. It is his way or grid-lock. I wouldn’t be surprised if Bush tries to shut down the government because he doesn’t like the spending.
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From NYT:
President Bush on Tuesday vetoed a major spending measure that would have funded education, health care and job training programs, saying it contained money for too many of the special projects known as earmarks. But he signed a $459 billion bill to increase the Pentagon’s nonwar funding.
The veto, on a measure providing $150.7 billion in discretionary spending for the Departments of Education, Labor, and Health and Human Services, was announced as Bush was en route to Indiana to deliver an economics speech in which chastised Congress for “wasteful spending” and describe it as acting “like a teenager with a new credit card.”
The president’s action guaranteed a new round of wrangling with the Democrats who control Congress over war costs and clashing domestic spending priorities. (more…)
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Errington C. Thompson, MD, is a surgeon, scholar, fulltime sports fan and part-time political activist. He is active in a number of community projects and initiatives. Through medicine, he strives to improve the physical health of all he treats...
