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Wednesday, June 27, 2007

ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER VETO THREAT


President Bush issued a warning to Congress on Wednesday that he will veto budget appropriations for the District of Columbia unless the measure contains language barring the district from using any of the money for its domestic partner registry.

The registry allows same and opposite-sex unmarried couples to register their relationships.

Three quarters of the District of Columbia's budget comes from local revenue - city taxes and fees. But, about $120 million in additional funds comes from the federal government. That money is contained in the Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act.

Under Republicans the legislation stated that none of the federal money could be used to support the partner registry.

When Democrats took control of Congress the requirement was removed.

In threatening a veto the White House on Wednesday issued a statement saying: "The Administration strongly opposes the bill’s exclusion of a longstanding provision that disallows the use of Federal funds to register unmarried, cohabitating couples in the District, to enable them to qualify for benefits on the same basis as legally married couples.

Under Federal law, legal marriage is the union between a man and a woman. Federal tax dollars are not used to extend employment benefits to domestic partners of Federal employees, and D.C. should not enjoy an exception to this rule."

The Domestic Partner registry includes such partner rights as hospital and nursing home visitations, medical decisions, and inheritance rights.

"With his popularity at an all time low, this President has yet again dipped his cup into the well of anti-gay bigotry," said Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese. "He has issued a veto threat on funding for the District of Columbia because long-term, committed couples want to have such basic rights as visiting each other in the hospital and making medical decisions for their partner. The anti-gay zeal of this Administration has reached a new low."

Gay Democrats seized on the veto threat as another example of wedge politics."This is a misleading veto threat designed to parrot the talking points of the anti-gay special interests which control and finance the Republican Party, said National Stonewall Democrats Executive Director Jo Wyrick, "President Bush would never threaten to withhold federal funds from California because it employs a domestic partnership registry. Yet, Republicans feel that the District of Columbia is their financial playground that they can use to bully local families at the pleasure of their anti-gay agenda. That is wrong.

It is the second time in two months the president has threatened a veto over a gay issue.In May the White House said that if legislation adding gays and lesbians to federal hate crime laws the president would nix it.

3 comments:

RIC said...

Dear Don,
I believe the USA are going through desperate, lead times...
Just to see the end of this administration people end up wishing time will just fly by...
I suspect, however, more wrong deeds are on their way...
Wish you the best, dear friend!
:-)

Anonymous said...

I hope someone will veto this nitwit and his party of ranting raging radicals in 2008.

And, as ric said, I suspect there will be an avalanche of this kind of nonsense leading up to your next presidential election. If they put another nut in the white house, maybe you should all start moving to Canada. We haven't gone down that road... yet... although who knows what will happen if our dubya wannabe gets a majority in the next federal election.

BostonPobble said...

The man is insane. Seriously. I can't think of any other explanation for all this.