Congress Overrides Bush Water Bill Veto

The first veto override in President Bush's time in the White House was delivered on a bill that will fund needed water projects around the nation. Or, doll out federal tax dollars unwisely for pet pork projects -- depending on how you look at it.

Either way, it's a $23 billion authorization bill, meaning the money isn't spent until Congress appropriates it.

The high-profile projects include restoration of wetlands on the Gulf Coast that are seen as a natural hurricane and flooding buffer, and work in the Florida Everglades.

But projects like two in New York -- for beach replenishment of a Brooklyn beach, and the creation of oyster reefs -- led even a hometown paper to complain:

"The way these bills get passed is to include provisions for similar projects in congressional districts across the nation," a New York Sun editorial reads. "Since New Yorkers pay more than their share of federal taxes because of the progressivity of the federal tax code, we'd be better off if the politicians in Washington would cut federal taxes and allow such projects, if necessary, to be funded locally."

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