AP/House Democrats Defeat Spending Bill (What a Headline!)

[kpete]

House Democrats Defeat Spending Bill

By JIM ABRAMS
The Associated Press
Thursday, November 17, 2005; 3:17 PM

WASHINGTON -- Legislation to fund many of the nation's health, education and social programs went down to a startling defeat in the House Thursday, led by Democrats who said cuts in the bill hurt some of America's neediest people.

The 224-209 vote against the $142.5 billion spending bill disrupted plans by Republican leaders to finish up work on this year's spending bills and cast doubt on whether they would have the votes to pass a major budget-cutting bill also on the day's agenda.


Democrats, unanimous in opposing the legislation, said it included the first cut in education funding in a decade and slashed spending for several health care programs. "It betrays our nation's values and its future," said House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer of Maryland. "It is neither compassionate, conservative nor wise."

The vote was "a tremendous defeat" for the Republicans, said House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. "It had the wrong priorities."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/17/AR2005111700931.html

[raysr]

1. That's so GREAT!!!!!!!

Unity!!!!!!

[Rageneau]

11. Push 'em back, Push 'em back --- waaaayyyy back!

[rndmprsn]

2. indeed...what a headline...

my friends...i think we FINALLY have an OPPOSITION party...in the nick of time, but thank god!

[Karmageddon]

3. Kickass!!!!

[raysr]

4. Fight the pukes

until the last dog is hung!!!!! (yellow that is)

[Skidmore]

5. Who says having bought two thirds of the government means

that you own the people?

"Not every blunt instrument is a hammer." LOL!

[KingFlorez]

6. Rock On Baby, Rock On!

GO DEMOCRATS! SHOW 'EM WHO'S BOSS!

[MsUSA]

7. Was hearing Charles Rangle this morning on C-SPAN......

and he was saying even some moderate repubs wouldn't vote for this bill, but mostly it was because they didn't have the "hammer" to strong arm those moderates to go along with it. This is great news.

[Barkley]

28. Yep, DeLay is under indictment and there's no more "hammer."

[Stockholm]

8. GOP writing for WAPO again....

Good for the democrats. Now Reid should express wishes that he is proud bot not satisfied, and that the democrats will not rest until all those tax breaks for Bush's and Cheney's oil executive friends are rolled back.

[OnionPatch]

9. Wow, that's pretty cool

Now I wonder who the Republicans are who teamed up with our side. There must have been a few, right? I'm sure it wasn't my Pukey congressman.

Also, I'm getting my bills confused. Is this the "budget reconciliation" bill? The same one that had the Pombo provision to sell off some of our public lands?

[Michigander4Dean]

19. Here's the tabulation

http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2005/roll598.xml

[zanne]

Dare to dream!

For the first time in 5 years, I'm not feeling cynical! This IS the turning point we've all been waiting and praying for! Bush can't spin his way out anymore. I HAVE HAPPYFEET!

[Tiggeroshii]

10. LOVIT!

Let's keep it up!

:D

:toast:

[prescole]

12. Moderate Republicans have seen the writing on the wall, and it says

"run away from this president as fast as you can!"

[ourbluenation]

13. and now...for your moment of freep

"GOP is losing it."

"Could the GOP be using "reverse psychology"?"

"Yep sad but true............I blame Bush for of this s**t. All the RINO's know they are in deep **** in their homestates for midterms. They are all moving to the middle(left)"

"Now you know why Tom Delay was indicted...it was all part of the plan to seize the House."

"What happened to all those people who say it doesn't matter what Bush's poll numbers look like, he's not up for reelection. Well, you get situations like this...
Republicans in the Congress won't feel uneasy about going up against the White House."

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1524074/posts

[oxbow]

14. Democrats ineffective no longer

a string of victories the last few weeks. Keep the momentum flowing Dems! You've got em on the ropes! The radical wing of the GOP won't get away with ANY OF THIS!

[Window]

15. YES!!!!

"It is neither compassionate, conservative nor wise."

I Love It!!!!



Peace

[progressivebydesign]

16. Anyone else find the first sentence to be shockingly badly worded?

"Legislation to fund many of the nation's health, education and social programs went down to a startling defeat in the House Thursday, led by Democrats who said cuts in the bill hurt some of America's neediest people." If you only read the beginning of that sentence, I'd say it sounds like Democrats fought legislation to FUND the nation's health, education, and social, programs. Should it have been "to defund"? Or "to cut"??

[slipslidingaway]

17. YES and the words after the comma seem to be an afterthought...

of truth.

[Michigander4Dean]

18. Howard Dean must really be having a happy birthday | nt

[DebJ]

21. is it his birthday today?

a scorpio...sexy

[Barkley]

29. H. Dean is right: When Dems stand up for our beliefs, we win everytime.

The elections of last week prove him right.
So does this vote on spending.
No more repub light.

[FreedomAngel82]

20. Go Democrats!!

[texpatriot2004]

22. Woo Hoo - I am THRILLED to hear this TERRIFIC NEWS

:woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo:

[jwirr]

23. I love these Dems - unanimous. Thank you.

[DRoseDARs]

24. Erm, the story seems to have been changed to say the opposite.

:wtf:

[Nothing Without Hope]

25. The horrible House Budget bill has JUST PASSED (in the wee hours):

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1933081
thread title (11/18 LBN): House passes Sweeping Budget Cut Bill (in wee hours after initial defeat)

In addition to the cuts for the people who can least afford them, it still has the Pombo amendment as far as I know - a major, mega disaster in the making - and some GOP Reps are saying they won't vote for the final House/Senate bill unless the ANWR drilling is put back in.

I urge you to read about the catastrophic, over-the-top Pombo amendment to the House omnibus budget bill in this thread:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x5372231
thread title (11/16 GD): PUBLIC LAND GRAB ALERT! LATimes:millions of acres at stake in House bill

The Senate version of the budget bill does not have the Pombo language, which was slipped in at the last minute without a public hearing. IT MUST BE KEPT OUT OF THE FINAL COMBINED BUDGET BILL. So far, it's been almost entirely under the radar - and it is a horror.

[jarnocan]

26. I was so confused

Most headlines reported it was defeated. But can it still go down in the senate?
http://action.ourfuture.org/action/index.asp?step=2&item=28629 petition also move on has a petition with optional pictures.
http://political.moveon.org/budgetaction/photos/

[AnnInLa]

27. The difference in the two bills

The original bill was for 142.5 billion in cuts....the new bill that passed was for 50 billion. This from today's NY Times:



http://nytimes.com/2005/11/18/politics/18cong.html?hp&ex=1132376400&en=92a886174413fd10&ei=5094&partner=homepage


Hours after the loss on the spending front, the leadership early Friday morning forced through a separate measure making nearly $50 billion in budget cuts over five years after massaging the plan to reduce opposition from Republican moderates. The vote, which came after a couple of false starts in recent weeks and a bitter debate, was 217 to 215.

"Today we are simply slowing the future growth of government," said Representative Chris Chocola, Republican of Indiana, as the House opened debate. Mr. Chocola said the reductions, if translated to a typical family budget of $50,000, represented a savings of $50.

Democrats said it was unfair to reduce spending on programs like food stamps and health care for the poor to offset the costs of the hurricanes.

"This is the cruelest lie of all," said Representative Gene Taylor, a Mississippi Democrat who lost his home to Hurricane Katrina, "that the only way you can help people who have lost everything is by hurting somebody else."








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