HYPOCRISY OF GEORGE BUSH ON HEALTH INSURANCE FOR CHILDREN.

We see clearly the priorities of George Bush. He vetoes health insurance for children costing some 35 billion over five years because it would be too expensive, and then a day or two later, he proposes 80 billion more in defense spending, bringing the year's total to 200 billion. More money to kill people and yet no money for children's health insurance. As he said, let them go to the emergency room if they are sick.

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.

MIKE LEAVITT IS FOR FEDERAL FARM SUBSIDIES (FOR HIMSELF) BUT AGAINST FEDERAL HEALTH INSURANCE FOR CHILDREN

Mike Leavitt, Secretary of the Health and Human Services Department, was on C-Span yesterday morning defending Bush's threat of vetoing the increase in the program paying for health insurance for children, known as CHIP or S-CHIP.

Leavitt claims he and Bush want affordable health care for all. The one thing he does not address is how poorer families can afford to pay for their children's health needs. Leavitt and Bush believe the government should not provide the funds. That means that families in lower economic brackets will never obtain health insurance for their children.

Leavitt is a big hypocrite. The Salt Lake Tribune reported this past Sunday how Leavitt's family farms has received over $200,000 in government subsidies over the last eight years. Reports Dawn House for the SL Trib:

"Another Utah millionaire receiving farm subsidies is Secretary of Health and Human Services Michael Leavitt, a former insurance executive. Leavitt owned a 13 percent interest in a subsidized farming operation in Wayne County, which received $200,887 in disaster, crop and dairy supports. The payments started in 1999, six years after Leavitt became Utah governor (he left office in 2003).

"Leavitt sold off his holdings in 2005 from his family's insurance business and cattle operations, valued at a minimum of $5.1 million, to avoid conflicts of interest once he became chief of the federal agency. He retains a 13 percent interest in Leavitt Land and Investment, valued at $1 million to $5 million, which received conservation subsidies on land in Clark County, Nev., in 2000, 2001 and 2005 totaling $32,340."

So here's Leavitt railing against the federal government paying for health costs for poor kids at the same time as he deposits the hundreds of thousands of dollars of federal farm subsidies into his family's bank account. How big a hypocrite is Mike Leavitt!

MEAN MIKE LEAVITT SAYS CHIP FUNDING IS "RADICAL"

Mike Leavitt, former governor of the state of Utah, now head of the Department of Health and Human Services, comes out and says the increase in funding for children's health insurance is "radical" and should not be allowed. I wonder how he would feel if his children needed health care but lacked insurance.

Thomas Burr writes today in The Salt Lake Tribune that Leavitt believes the government should not be involved in providing monies to pay for medical insurance for children.

"Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt, Utah's former governor, is fighting a move by Democrats to boost children's health care by up to $50 billion. And he says he'd be against it even if he were still governor and looking at millions of dollars more in federal funds for needy children in Utah.

"Leavitt told a group of reporters Wednesday that the struggle between the Bush administration and Congress over the amount to fund the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) is about an ideological battle over who should run health care: the government or the private sector."

In other words, Leavitt believes needy children should go without health care if they cannot themselves pay for health insurance. The government according to Leavitt should not be in the business of funding health care for its neediest children. This guy Leavitt turns out to be mean, real mean. He is after all a Republican, and maybe all Republicans think this way. Let the kids fend for themselves when they get sick.

Certainly Bush thinks the same way. He has threatened to veto the bill increasing federal financing for CHIP, the program that purchases health insurance for children. Bush apparently believes, as does Leavitt, that 50 billion dollars is too much, too excessive, too profligate. Yet Bush and his war-mongering gang think nothing about spending 100 billion or more per year on this unjustified and immoral war in Iraq. Not to mention the hundreds of billions the Bush team throws at the defense contractors and manufacturers who build the latest in bombs, war planes and other instruments of killing.

If Bush vetoes this CHIP authorization, there will be heck to pay for the Republicans. This is a no-brainer. The Democrats are on the side of the angels on this one.