Why Not Vote For What's Good For the Country For Once

The Senate tried and failed to override the veto by president Obama of the bill authorizing construction of the Keystone XL pipeline.  The final tally was 62 in favor of the override and 37 against, but they needed 2/3 of the votes in order to win.  It's interesting that the votes to override were bipartisan; all of the Republicans and just under 20% of the Democrats voted to override.  Only the remainder of the Democrats voted to sustain the veto.

It ought to tell the Democrats something when every Republican and a big chunk of their own party members voted to override.  Remember, polls show that more than 60% of the American people favor construction of the pipeline.  The idea that the Dems voted to support the veto so as to give the State Department more time to study the issue is outrageous.  The department has already had about eight years to study the issue and has already issued three reports that supported approval. 

What is stopping the approval is the opposition of some of the billionaire donors to the Democrats who oppose the pipeline.  The Democrats may talk about helping the middle class, but the people they truly care about helping are billionaires like Tom Steyer who are heavily invested in green energy and do not want to see Keystone help bring down the price of oil further.