Congress voted to override a veto from President Bush for the first time ever yesterday… but of course Adam Putnam wasn’t one of those voting in the overwhelming majority.

As any astute observer knows, in order to override a veto, it takes 2/3rds of the Congress and that means a large bipartisan majority.  In the case of the bill yesterday, the vote was more than just a large bipartisan majority… it was an overwhelming one ( the bill is an obscure but popular one related to water projects such as coastal redevelopment, drainage areas, levee construction, rivers & lakes, etc).

From the Washington Post article:

Yesterday’s 361 to 54 override tally was 90 votes more than the two-thirds needed, and was made up of the votes of 223 Democrats and 138 Republicans. Just 54 Republicans stuck with Bush.

361 to 54 !  That means the bill had the support of almost every single Democrat AND 2/3rds of the Republicans.

So was Putnam casting a loosing protest vote on behalf of the people of Florida? Sadly, no.
From the WP Article above:

“This is far too important for this nation and my state of Florida,” said Rep. John L. Mica, who led the Republican effort to override Bush’s veto.

That’s right, this bill is more important to the people of Florida than perhaps to any other state besides Louisiana!  Florida, afterall, has some of the most complicated water reclamation, levee, hurricane,  everglades, and similar type problems in the nation… it’s almost as if we’re below sea level and surrounded by major bodies of water.  And so the Republicans who lead the charge to make sure this Bipartisan bill passed:  they were Republicans from Florida & other Southeastern Gulf States!  This bill makes me feel like I’m on an old gameshow where the crowd shouts “how partisan is he???!” and the announcer holds up the bill and says “this partisan!” while Adam marks a big red “X” through it.

Thankfully, at least this time (unlike with the Childrens’ Health Care bill) Putnam wasn’t able to stop the veto override from going through.  But just because he failed at screwing up Florida’s federal water funding, doesn’t mean Putnam shouldn’t be held accountable for trying to F it up.

The final vote total is here.

This is just amazing.  Putnam knows that in DC unquestioning loyalty is how you get ahead.  And because of that he is going to continue choosing his BFF George Bush over anyone and everyone… and that inclues you, me, Polk County, and Florida.  

UPDATE:  Here’s some more info on the bill, from that same WP Article:

 The bill would authorize billions of dollars in coastal restoration, river navigation and dredging projects, levee construction and other Army Corps of Engineers public-works efforts. Seven years in the making, the measure took on particular political resonance in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, as Gulf Coast lawmakers secured nearly $2 billion in restoration and levee construction projects for the region. The bill would also continue projects such as the restoration of the Everglades and the dredging of the upper Mississippi River, while expanding oversight of the Army Corps.

How bipartisan was this bill (that Adam just voted against?).

This Bipartisan.

That’s right, the U.S. Senate, where a Democrat can’t order a sandwich for lunch without a Republican filibustering… passed SCHIP with a veto-proof, 67 vote margin.

The 67-29 vote followed a series of speeches by Republican senators supporting the bill and urging Mr. Bush to reconsider his veto threat.

Senator Pat Roberts of Kansas, one of 18 Republicans who voted for the bill, said the White House had shown “little if any willingness to come to the negotiating table.”

Republican opponents of the bill, like Senators Judd Gregg of New Hampshire and John Cornyn of Texas, said it would be a big step toward socialized medicine, would shift people from private insurance to a public program and would allow coverage for illegal immigrants and children in high-income families.

Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa, said it was “intellectually dishonest” to make such “outlandish accusations.”

Mr. Bush has said the bill would move toward “government-run health care for every American.”

Senator Bob Corker, Republican of Tennessee, said those fears were unfounded.

“What will move our country toward socialized medicine is not this bill, which focuses on poor children, but the lack of action to allow people in need to have access to private affordable health care,” Mr. Corker said.

And those are coming from extremely conservative Republicans. As I pointed out in my original post, this bill is extremely popular with everyone, Democrats and Republicans, and Independents. We all know our healthcare system is broken, when millions of little kids have no access to healthcare. This bill doesn’t even try to fix our healthcare system, it just puts a temporary patch on to keep those kids from getting too sick. And the only two people who seem to think that’s going too far, are Adam Putnam & George W. Bush.

UPDATE: Swing State Project adds Adam (and his buddy Gus Bilirakis, Ric Keller, Dave Weldon, John Mica, and Mario Diaz-Balart) to their S-CHIP Crum Bum Roll-Call. Adam, as the Dean of the Florida delegation, is literally the key person standing in the way of keeping S-CHIP from becoming law. All just to s Despicable.

UPDATE II:  My favorite quote from the above linked Crum Bum Roll-Call is this:

It always amazes me that Republicans are eager to put on their “fiscal conservative” hats when it comes to taking care of society’s most vulnerable constituencies, but are so willing to rubberstamp billions upon billions for an endless war in Iraq with no questions asked.

Adam is in the extreme minority on this vote.

Last night Putnam & 158 of his extreme-right-wing friends voted against the SCHIP renewal and expansion act. Thankfully, the bill still passed with a huge bipartisan majority of 265 votes.

CHIP (the Childrens Health Insurance Program) is bipartisan 1990s program that provided Medicare-style health insurance to poor kids who can’t otherwise get coverage.

SCHIP expansion isn’t just good policy, it’s popular too. Nearly 9 in 10 voters want to see the program expanded. And for good reason, it’s a program that saves tax-payer money by making sure children get preventative care (and thus end up costing the saftey-net system less in the long run). It’s also an extremely important program to keep kids in school (healthy kids learn better), out of crime (kids in school are kids not on the street)… and the obvious fairness issue whereby it’s not kids fault their parents don’t have healthcare coverage for them.

Adam Putnam also chooses George Bush over Florida
SCHIP has passed the Senate with a veto-proof majority, but George Bush has threatened to veto the program. Which means Bush’s last chance to keep his veto from being over-ridden is in the house. While the bill passed the house with a huge bipartisan majority, it was a handful of votes short of the 2/3rds needed to override the veto. This means that Putnam’s large opposition to the bill is perhaps the only roadblock to keeping SCHIP from being renewed / expanded.

Here are some key stats on Florida’s SCHIP health insurance:

Number of Florida kids enrolled in CHIP: 303,595
Number of Florida kids eligible for CHIP or Medicaid but not enrolled: 464,011
2008 Funds available to Florida under bipartisan bill: $529,299,416

So, let’s get this straight: Adam Putnam is leading the fight against insuring poor kids. Specifically, he voted against 750 thousand of those kids right here in Flrida, and he voted against a half billion dollars in funding Florida would have gotten to help pay for those kids.

Good job Adam. I hope you have good luck with your “Poison Kittens & Shoot Old People Act” scheduled for a vote sometime next week. It’s probably more popular than voting against SCHIP.