I'll Never Understand Conservatism / What's The House Up To Now?

I try to be as politically open-minded as possible, but as I've said before, I will never agree with what passes today for a conservative governing philosophy. I am still scratching my head at the conservative anger at the impending minimum wage increase ('Don't those uppity employees realize their $7.25/hr demands will destroy our economy-- just like it did the previous times wages were raised?!')... now this-

The House approved legislation Friday requiring the government to negotiate with drug companies over the price of medicines for Medicare participants.

Despite a veto threat from the president, Democrats used their majority status to push through another of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's priorities for the first 100 hours of the new Congress. The vote was 255-170, mostly along party lines.

The idea behind the bill is using the sheer size of the Medicare program to generate steeper discounts than private insurance plans can muster...

Veto? Why? What on earth is wrong with this bill? Ohh, I see it may cost the drug companies a few bucks and therefore is politically unacceptable for the President. Officially, though, the White House's argument is that market forces (ahh, the almighty power of the market) can generate lower prices and thus the bill is pointless. Seems pretty extreme then to veto a 'pointless' bill, Mr. President, considering all the misguided bills of the GOP congress you signed, no? Who does it harm?... Oh, I appear to be right back where I started from, aren't I?

Anyway, the Democrats appearing to be milking the 100 Hour agenda pretty good. Here's what they've done-

-CBS News: House Passes Minimum Wage Boost
-The Guardian: House Passes Anti-Terror Legislation
-NY Times: House Passes Bill for Stem Cell Research

Over in the Senate, they're taking a more leisurely pace (all the Iraq hearings are understandably keeping them pretty busy). Sen. Webb did introduce a bill called the Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act of 2007, though, "legislation that will provide the newest Veterans with educational benefits like those received by men and women who served in the three decades following World War II".

A bill shifting oil industry subsidies toward renewable energy and energy efficiency is next on the House agenda.