Spending Veto Possibility Update

The Senate has passed a War on Terror/Hurricane Relief Supplemental Spending Bill that appropriates a total of a total of $109,000,000,000 and includes a number of questionable pork-spending items. President Bush threatened to veto this bill if the total amount appropriated exceeded $94,500,000,000.

35 Republican Senators have signed a letter pledging to uphold the President’s veto, but 14 of those Senators (George Allen, Robert Bennett, Kit Bond, Sam Brownback, Jim Bunning, Lincoln Chafee, John Cornyn, Elizabeth Dole, Charles Grassley, John Kyl, Mel Martinez, Rick Santorum, John Thune and John Warner) voted to approve the $109,000,000,000 version of the bill. Senator Orrin Hatch, who also signed the veto pledge, did not vote on the final passage of the bill.

Before the bill reaches the President’s desk, it must be reconciled with the House version, which costs only $91,900,000,000. Negotiations between the House and Senate may still avert a veto. If they don't, the 14 Senators listed above will be in the position of having to vote against a bill they voted for in order to uphold their pledge. I don't get the tactics of this.