The US Congress dealt a humiliating blow to Donald Trump in his final weeks in the White House on Friday vote for the abolition of the presidential veto on the defense budget, the first time lawmakers have overturned one of their vetoes.
With 81-13 votes in favor of abolition of the right of veto – more than the required two-thirds -, the Republican-controlled Senate passed the defense budget bill for $ 740.5 billion for the 2021 fiscal year.
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The Democratic-controlled House of Representatives had already voted in favor of reversing the veto on Monday with 322 votes in favor and 87 against. Both houses had already passed the budget bill by large majorities in early December, but Trump – citing a series of objections – vetoed it on December 23.
“It is time we passed this bill,” Mitch McConnell, leader of the Senate majority group, said at the start of Friday’s session.
“It is our chance to remind the brave in the military and their families that we are behind them.”.
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The vote, a shocking rebuke to Trump in his last weeks in office, took place during an extraordinary New Year’s gathering which should have been recalled after the presidential veto. It is probably the final act of the outgoing Congress.
That veto promises to increase tension between the outgoing president and his party’s Senate leaders, whom he has already dealt with because the majority have already recognized Joe Biden as president-elect, something he does not accept.
The new members will be sworn in on Sunday, just 17 days after Democrat Biden takes office.
An unprecedented veto in decades
Last week, Trump became the first president in 59 years to object to the passing of the defense budget, in clear confrontation with the Republican leaders.
The fact is, you don’t have to worry.
The president decided to veto the so-called National Defense Authorization Act for the fiscal year 2021, among other things because he considers it a “gift” to China and Russia and because of their ability to withdraw US troops from Germany and the South. Korea limited. and Afghanistan, as he had previously promised.
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In addition, the ruler was against the law because includes a provision to rename a dozen military bases named after the leaders of the Southern Confederacy in the Civil War (1861-1865), which are considered a racist symbol for those who defended slavery.
Finally, the president wanted the legislation to include a clause to end what is known as “Section 230,” which protects internet giants such as Facebook, Twitter and Google from any legal ramifications for what third parties publish on their websites. .
“Our Republican Senate missed an opportunity to tear down Section 230 which gives Big Tech companies unlimited powers”Trump tweeted after the House ruling. “Pathetic !!!”, confirmed.
Referring to the Senate’s refusal to vote first on a motion to increase financial compensation for the pandemic, he added: “Now they want to give $ 600 to the people affected by the China Virus instead of the $ 2,000 they badly need”, he said, using the term he usually uses to refer to the coronavirus.
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But members of the Republican Party itself – which has always prided itself on being strong on defense issues – underscored the importance of this budget bill.
“It is absolutely essential for our national security and for our troops.”said Senator Jim Inhofe, chairman of the Armed Forces Commission. “Our men and women who voluntarily wear the uniform should never be denied what they need.”
Democrats in both houses also criticized Trump’s veto. The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, called it “an act of recklessness.”
The National Defense Authorization Act is used to fund Pentagon operations abroad and includes salary increases for soldiers, funds for new military equipment, and to pay for health care for troops.
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Senator Jack Reed, the top Democrat on the Armed Forces Commission, said in the Senate on Friday the bill was “essential” to bolster the country’s cyber security against widespread attackssuch as those that have recently hit the government and some private companies.
To Trump’s view that Beijing and Moscow would also pass the law, Reed replied that it was “completely unfounded.” Inhofe and Reed congratulated each other after a long collaboration to draft the law, a rare opportunity for two-way collaboration in a deeply divided congress.
Attempts to increase payments to citizens are failing
Tension between Trump and Republican Senate leaders has also increased due to the president’s five-day delay in signing a new pandemic stimulus plan. and his demand that direct payments to citizens covered by that law be increased from $ 600 to $ 2,000.
Republican leaders in the Senate on Friday for the fourth consecutive day blocked Democrats’ attempt to increase the amount of these direct transfers to taxpayers with annual incomes less than $ 75,000.
This means that the initiative, which the House of Representatives approved last Monday, will not go ahead for the time being.In any case, it should be considered and re-voted from Sunday, when a new congress is due to take place after the November elections.
“(To approve that change) would be socialism for wealthy people,” Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell said in a full Senate speech this Friday.
Americans who meet the lease terms will instead receive a one-time payment of $ 600, as contemplated in the stimulus plan approved in December.
AFP and EFE