HOUSE FAILS ON OVERRIDE OF BUSH'S VETO OF CHILDREN'S HEALTH INSURANCE

The House failed to muster enough votes to override Bush's veto on S-CHIP. Aliza Marcus reports in Bloomberg:

"The 273-156 vote today fell 13 short of the two-thirds majority required to overturn a veto. The measure would have added $35 billion over five years to the 10-year-old State Children's Health Insurance Program."

Think Progress reports on Steve King, R-IA. calling S-CHIP a program for illegal aliens and their kids - “Socialized Clinton-style Hillarycare for Illegals and their Parents . . .”

Think Progress adds:

"Earlier this week, Rep. Tom Feeney (R-FL) told USA Today that he refers to SCHIP as “Socialized, Cuba-style Health care for Illegals and their Parents.”"

Think Progress correctly points out:

"For the record, SCHIP stands for the “State Children’s Health Insurance Program” and does not cover undocumented immigrants. Not surprisingly, King voted today to sustain Bush’s SCHIP veto."

So today is a day when children lose out on medical care and health insurance. Imagine if we had a leader in Washington instead of Bush. We could provide health coverage for all children and, at the same time, end the disastrous war in Iraq.

BUSH IS MEAN ON CHILDREN'S HEALTH CARE

I see where Pres. Bush has justified his veto of the S-Chip bill by claiming that including more needy children under health insurance coverage would be promoting the nationalization of health care. This is too ridiculous to comprehend. Bush is against the federal government helping needy children who would do without care of physicians and hospitals were it not for federal health insurance.

Bush and anyone who supports this mean and cruel veto should be voted out of office. If the federal government cannot intercede and provide needed health care for children who would never obtain it if it were not for S-CHIP, then what is the purpose of having any government whatsoever?

It just goes to show how mean Bush and many Republican ideologues are. To hell with the kids, let them go without medical care. We Republicans must stand firm against these attempts to get the federal government to help.

BUSH VETOES CHILDREN'S HEALTH INSURANCE FUNDING

So Bush has vetoed the Children's Health Insurance Program because he claims it would take children off private insurance rolls and put them on government ones. Oh yeah, sure! This is pure Bush fantasy. Bush says that sick kids who can't afford insurance and who won't qualify for his plan limiting the CHIP program to the poorest of poor kids could just go to the emergency rooms at hospitals for their medical needs.

This is the meanest and most heartless Bush action ever. Let kids go to emergency rooms? Has Bush himself ever gone to a hospital's emergency room for care, or taken his kids to one? Obvioulsly not. Solely on the basis of some antiquated and uncaring conservative political ideological bias, Bush does not want government to insure poor kids. So he vetoes a program agreed upon by both Republicans and Democrats as necessary for children's health in America.

Do Bush supporters really think they can support this mean denial of medical insurance for America's needy children?

MIKE LEAVITT LOVED HEALTH INSURANCE FOR CHILDREN WHEN HE WAS UTAH GOVERNOR

Mike Leavitt used to be the governor of the state of Utah. Now he is secretary of Health and Human Services in George Bush's cabinet. Recently Leavitt came out and said that the president as well as himself, Leavitt, were opposed to an increase in funding for CHIP, the federal program that pays for health insurance for needy children in lower economic brackets on the basis of "ideology." By that, Leavitt means that he and Bush believe the federal government should stay away from insuring poor children and instead let the private insurance sector do the job of providing health insurance. But suppose a child's parents don't have the monies to pay for the health coverage? The answer to what would happen then is something Bush and Leavitt fail to answer or address.

Leavitt was gung-ho for the CHIP program during the time he was governor, Rebecca Walsh writes this morning in The Salt Lake Tribune.

"Mike Leavitt loved his props.

"As Utah's governor, Leavitt used to juice up his earnest budget and State of the State speeches with wooden apples and pie charts. But nothing worked as well as a poverty-stricken cherub. And Utah's former governor used not one, but two over the years to prove his commitment to taking care of children.

"In 1998, he cradled 7-month-old Bo, who was taken at birth from his heroin-addict mother. In 2001, Leavitt boosted 11-month-old Preston White, who was born with a bone abnormality. The State Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) saved his parents from bankruptcy.

"Seems Mr. Leavitt has forgotten little Bo and Preston now that he's gone to Washington. Now that he's a front man for the Bush administration, Utah's former governor has rediscovered his opposition to state-subsidized health care for poor children."

So Mike Leavitt was for the CHIP program before he was against it? And if Leavitt thought that CHIP saved families from having to declare bankruptcy, why now would he advise Bush to veto an increase in a program that can only include more children who need the federal insurance?

Leavitt thought so much of CHIP when he was governor that he even got his wife, Jackie, to make TV commercials praising and espousing the program. Writes Rebecca Walsh:

"Besides using Preston and Bo, the former governor dedicated his 2000 conference for community leaders to the issue. He and first lady Jacalyn Leavitt filmed public service announcements for CHIP. "

The turn around in Leavitt's position is hard to believe. As governor, he loves CHIP. As secretary he hates it. Imagine the disgrace of CHIP - the federal government uses taxes to pay for health insurance for poor children.

Remember this is the same Mike Leavitt that has gladly taken in over $200,000 in federal farm subsidies over the last eight years. As he was going to the bank to deposit these federal farm hand-outs, I am unaware of any Leavitt objections to that federal hand-out the way he is objecting now to health coverage for sick children.

MEAN BUSH WON'T SIGN BILL ON EXPANDING CHILDREN'S HEALTH INSURANCE

From seeing him swagger and saunter on TV to hearing him hector listeners with his childish oratory, we all have a sense of George Bush's character or lack thereof.

But his refusal to back an expansion of health insurance for children shows how mean this guy really is.

Christopher Lee writes today in The Washington Post:

"President Bush yesterday rejected entreaties by his Republican allies that he compromise with Democrats on legislation to renew a popular program that provides health coverage to poor children, saying that expanding the program would enlarge the role of the federal government at the expense of private insurance."

Here Bush shows his attitude towards people especially children without health insurance. It is their fault for not having it. Government has no business intervening to help them get it. Where did we hear this old saw before? Oh, it's part of the mantra of the Republican Party.

Writes Lee:

"The president said he objects on philosophical grounds to a bipartisan Senate proposal to boost the State Children's Health Insurance Program by $35 billion over five years. Bush has proposed $5 billion in increased funding and has threatened to veto the Senate compromise and a more costly expansion being contemplated in the House.


""I support the initial intent of the program," Bush said in an interview with The Washington Post after a factory tour and a discussion on health care with small-business owners in Landover. "My concern is that when you expand eligibility . . . you're really beginning to open up an avenue for people to switch from private insurance to the government.""

Forget about the forty million Americans who have no health coverage because they cannot afford it. Protect the private insurance industry above all. This is what Bush seems to be saying. Let those without any health insurance go without it.

Is this the guy who should be president of the United States? Even Orrin Hatch and Chuck Grassley, both Republicans, are in favor of the expansion. That Bush is against the program shows how mean and dogmatic he is.

Lee writes:

"The 10-year-old program, which is set to expire on Sept. 30, costs the federal government $5 billion a year and helps provide health coverage to 6.6 million low-income children whose families do not qualify for Medicaid but cannot afford private insurance on their own.

"About 3.3 million additional children would be covered under the proposal developed by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and Republican Sens. Charles E. Grassley (Iowa) and Orrin G. Hatch (Utah), among others. It would provide the program $60 billion over five years, compared with $30 billion under Bush's proposal. And it would rely on a 61-cent increase in the federal excise tax on cigarettes, to $1 a pack, which Bush opposes."