Well, Bush has vetoed the S-CHIP Bill.
So, let’s review this. His first Veto was on Stem Cell research, a real winner to be sure, the next two were on Iraq, vetoing plans that had majority support in the nation, and his newest Veto will deny four million children insurance.
The State Children's Health Insurance Program is a joint state-federal effort that subsidizes health coverage for 6.6 million people, mostly children, from families that earn too much to qualify for Medicaid but not enough to afford their own private coverage.
The Democrats who control Congress, with significant support from Republicans, passed the legislation to add $35 billion over five years to allow an additional 4 million children into the program. It would be funded by raising the federal cigarette tax by 61 cents to $1 per pack.
The president had promised to veto it, saying the Democratic bill was too costly, took the program too far from its original intent of helping the poor, and would entice people now covered in the private sector to switch to government coverage. He wants only a $5 billion increase in funding.
Bush argued that the congressional plan would be a move toward socialized medicine by expanding the program to higher-income families.
We all know how I feel about smoking laws and sin taxes. You all should know this is a tax that I would be happy to pay. Personally, I think Bush needs that extra cash for his ner little war with his green little army men. (pun intended)
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The son-of-a-bitch can drop $500 billion on a pointless invasion and occupation of Iraq, but balks when it comes to healthcare for sick children.
This is the same man revered by the pious, sanctimonious "Christian" evangelical base as a God-fearing man, guided by the hand of the Almighty to do His work here on Earth.
President Bush constantly makes sure to mention his connection to God. He does it almost every time he addresses the American people.
Did he remember to pray for guidance before he picked up his pen to veto this bill? Did God tell him this was the right thing to do?
Unbelievable.
Asshole is as asshole does.
Bush can't find $7 billion a year, the same amount he's wasting every 2 1/2 weeks in Iraq, for 10 million kids without health insurance.
He says they have health care - 'they can go to the emergency room'. Doesn't that fool realize that that's the problem with the high costs health care today?
If these fucking republicans cared as much for the children 'living' in this country as they did a glob of cells in a women's utereus, we'd be a hell of a lot better off. And so would our kids.
>a glob of cells in a women's utereus
Stram, those are Blastocyte-Americans.
Here's an irony: I know a Republican couple whose kids were insured through SCHIP in Texas. They are single-issue voters of the anti-choice type. Yet for all the fact that they are financially stressed, have adolescent kids with medical needs, etc., I'd bet a dollar (my maximum bet ever) that they'll vote straight Republican in the next election. As Thomas Frank reminded us in What's the Matter with Kansas?, there are too many Americans who are too easily stirred up by false or secondary issues into voting against their own interests. I'd call them "fools," but I believe they are merely manipulated, which is not the same thing.
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