Bush vetoes child health funding, but wants more funds for war

Last week, despite stringent effort by Democrats in the House of Representative, the US Congress was unable to secure enough votes to override a veto by President George Bush for a bipartisan bill that would expand health coverage for children from low-income families.

This bill would have provided an additional $35 billion over five years to the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). Although there was a majority vote of 273-156 to override the president’s veto, it still fell 13 votes short of the required two thirds majority need to actually override the veto.

Florida members of the House voting for the override included Democrats Alcee Hastings, Ron Klein, Tim Mahoney, Ron Klein, Tim Mahoney, Kendrick Meek, Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Robert Wexler, while Republicans Lincoln and Mario Diaz-Balart and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen voted against it.

However, Bush had very little problem in asking Congress to approve an additional amount of $46 billion to continue funding the war in Iraq and the fighting in Afghanistan, and is seeking to have this approved by Christmas. Reports are that the war in Iraq is costing approximately $10 billion monthly or more than $455 billion over the last four years of the war.

Democrats, led by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, are saying that Bush should not expect lawmakers to rubber stamp his request.

Large turn out in Cuban elections

Elections were held in Cuba last Sunday to elect members to 169 municipal assemblies across that country. Reports indicate that over 8.1 million voters, representing 95 percent of the country’s registered voters turned out to cast their ballots in the elections.

The president of Cuba’s National Electoral Commission, Maria Esther Reus, indicated that the electorate elected 12,265 delegates to municipal assemblies. A huge number of candidates were put forward for the elections, with some races featuring up to eight candidates. There will be additional run-off elections this weekend to settle the elections in 2,971 contests where no candidate received a convincing majority in the first round of the elections.

In Cuba, citizens over the age of 16 are eligible to vote, and those who are eligible have the option of not voting. However, it has been reported that members of the Revolutionary Defense Committees who closely monitor voting in every neighborhood pay close attention to those who do not vote.

In municipal elections held in 2005, 97 percent of the electorate voted, 2 percent more than in these elections. The reason for the decline was attributed to bad weather that kept some voters from the polls.

Tony Blair could be EU president

Tony Blair, former prime minister of Britain is included in a short list of European leaders who could be elected to be the first full time president of the union of 27 European countries known as the European Union (EU). Others on the list are Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern and former Polish President Alexander Kwasniewski.

European leaders recently approved a governing treaty for the EU, which needs to be ratified by all member nations, before the new president could take office. Nonetheless, the Union is attempting to identify suitable candidates as its leader. The president must be supported by all leaders and can serve for a maximum period of 5 years.

Blair is supported by his successor as prime minister of Britain, Gordon Brown, and French President Nicolas Sarkozy. Brown said Blair would be a great candidate to be the boss of the EU, and Sarkozy regard Brown as the most “European of all Britons,” but added to it was too early to rule out other potential candidates.

Blair is currently the Middle East envoy for the International Quartet of peacemakers. The French president, in his support of Blair for the presidency of the EU, drew reference to his job in the Middle East as a peace envoy as something of huge international importance.