Obama Threatens Veto Over Cuba Provisions in House Bill (si!)

[flamingdem]

http://thehavananote.com/2011/07/obama_threatens_veto_over_cuba_provisions_house_bill

It is customary for an administration to send to Congress a Statement of Administration Policy (SAP) after committee consideration and before a floor vote, with warnings over provisions the administration wants to see removed. How do you ensure a provision's removal? Threaten to veto the bill over it. No committee chairman wants to see his bill go down over just one provision in it, so the tactic usually works.

President Bush repeatedly threatened to veto spending bills that had Cuba policy reforms included in them. In 2003, both the Republican House and the Republican Senate included identical language in a bill that would have stopped enforcement of the U.S. travel ban on Cuba. But once the president threatened to veto, the Republican leaders struck the offending provision from the bill - which, of course, saved the president from having to follow through on his threat.

This week, the Obama administration offered up its own veto threat over Cuba policy. It sent over a SAP with the following warning:
The Administration strongly opposes a number of provisions in this bill. If the President is presented with a bill that undermines either the Affordable Care Act or the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act through funding limits or other restrictions, or reverses current policies on Cuba, his senior advisors would recommend a veto.

The warning is so sharp and unambiguous, it's something of a shock for Cuba watchers. Afterall, on Cuba, this administration hasn't exactly stepped confidently to the plate (gosh, more like it didn't even swing most chances it got at bat). This SAP is something else. It's the closest this administration has gotten to appearing to have a policy on Cuba and sticking to it. And if you're wondering whether Obama is bluffing - don't bother. They'll say it's good policy (and it is), but it's also good politics . . . in Florida.

[Judi Lynn]

1. Wow. Didn't see this coming. Never saw a President stand up to the Miami Mafia.

Hope he'll have more lessons for them. Their opportunistic bluff on politicians should have never been allowed to get this powerful. It took crooked politicians to collaborate with them and pull it off.

Such great news. Thank you. Rec.

[joshcryer]

2. Hopefully the 70% or so of Maimi Cuban's *vote for non-elitist politicians* next time.

Then we won't have to have the President veto.

Personally I think the President is doing what Kerry and others in the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations expect him to do, but the Senate would block whatever nonsense the House is trying to pull anyway, just like with the airports.

[Billy Burnett]

3. Same ol' same ol'

One side postures. Nothing gets done.
Other side postures. Nothing gets done.
Too much graft in the same ol' same ol'.

American democracy™ at work. (work that actually is designed for squeezing campaign contributions - that is their work).

[joshcryer]

4. A good friend once told me, during my naive Marxist days, that democracy serves one function.

To keep change from happening quickly and to basically stall progress, to be as inefficient as possible, either for good or for bad. It was very insightful.