Bills George W. Bush vetoed

THE BILLS GEORGE W. BUSH VETOED

During his first five years in office, George W. Bush made headlines, and eventually raised eyebrows, over his seemingly extreme reluctance to ever veto a bill passed by congress. When he finally vetoed his first in the summer of 2006, he officially became the slowest-to-veto president in American history. A partial explanation for this reluctance was doubtlessly due to the fact that his party controlled both chambers of Congress during much of his first two terms; a perk few presidents get to enjoy. He only ended up vetoing a single law passed by the GOP-controlled Congress (#1, see below)

But then the Democrats won control of both houses in the 2006 Congressional elections, and since then Bush's been vetoing a lot more. Let's take a look at the dozen bills Mr. Bush has found to be the most objectionable of his presidency, and why.

#	DATE	BILL	WHY HE VETOED (plus notes.)
1	Jul. 19, 2006	Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act	Opposes Stem Cell technology on pro-life grounds. "This bill would support the taking of innocent human life in the hope of finding medical benefits for others . . . It crosses a moral boundary that our decent society needs to respect." — Read full presidential statement
2	May 1, 2007	U.S. Troop Readiness, Veterans' Care, Katrina Recovery, and Iraq Accountability Appropriations Act	Opposes "timetable" based end to the Iraq war; bill called for all US combat troops to be withdrawn from Iraq during October-March 2008. "Setting a deadline for withdrawal is setting a date for failure, and that would be irresponsible." — Read full presidential statement
3	June 20, 2007	Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act *(2nd time)*	See above — Read full presidential statement
4	Oct. 3, 2007	State Children's Health Insurance Program ("Schip") Reauthorization Act	Opposes expansion of public healthcare. "It is estimated that if this program were to become law, one out of every three persons that would subscribe to the new expanded Schip would leave private insurance . . . the policies of the government ought to be to help people find private insurance, not federal coverage. And that’s where the philosophical divide comes in." — Read full presidential statement
5	Nov. 2, 2007	Water Resources Development Act of 2007	Claimed bill was fiscally irresponsible. "This bill lacks fiscal discipline . . . American taxpayers should not be asked to support a pork-barrel system of [new federal spending] and funding where a project's merit is an afterthought." — Read full presidential statement Veto overridden by congress.
6	Nov. 13, 2007	Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act	Claimed bill was fiscally irresponsible. "This bill spends too much. It exceeds the reasonable and responsible levels for discretionary spending that I proposed to balance the budget by 2012." — Read full presidential statement
7	Dec. 12, 2007	State Children's Health Insurance Program ("Schip") Reauthorization Act (2nd time)	See above — Read full presidential statement
8	Dec. 28, 2007	National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008	Part of this bill allowed the Iraqi government's financial assets currently stored in US banks to be frozen, in order to allow the money to be used towards settling liability lawsuits with victims of the Saddam Hussein regime. The Iraqi government opposed this, so Bush vetoed the bill lest it weaken Iraq-US relations. "Exposing Iraq to such significant financial burdens would weaken the close partnership between the United States and Iraq during this critical period in Iraq's history." — Read full presidential statement
9	Mar. 8, 2008	Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008	Bill would have banned "waterboarding" style interrogation techniques for terrorism suspects, something Bush supports. "We need to ensure our intelligence officials have all the tools they need to stop the terrorists . . . This is no time for Congress to abandon practices that have a proven track record of keeping America safe." — Read full presidential statement
10 & 11	May 21, June 18 2008	2007 U.S. Farm Bill	Claimed bill did not significantly scale back existing farm subsidy regime, which he feels is overly generous, while also unduly increased federal spending. "This bill lacks program reform and fiscal discipline. It continues subsidies for the wealthy and increases farm bill spending by more than $20 billion, while using budget gimmicks to hide much of the increase." — Read full presidential statement, second statement 2 This bill weirdly had to be passed twice (and was thus vetoed twice) because a clerical error saw some key words accidently deleted from the first approved version. Veto overridden by congress.
12	July 15, 2008	Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act.	Somewhat complex. Bush favors more expansion of private healthcare options for the elderly, as opposed to this bill which expands the publicly-funded Medicare program. In practice, however, the veto was more about conflicting budgetary priorities between the White House and the Congress. "I support the primary objective of this legislation, to forestall reductions in physician payments. Yet taking choices away from seniors to pay physicians is wrong." — Read full presidential statement Veto overridden by congress.