Bush Vetos SCHIP Expansion Bill: "Oh, the Humanity!"

Hoorah! Finally President Bush has used his Veto pen to block a huge expansion of the original SCHIP coverage which would include 3 million illegal aliens and middle class families earning as much as $85,000/year. In addition it would redefine the word children to include adults aged 25.

This is another case of Democrats playing games with the lives of poor children for political gain. The Democrat Party clearly would prefer to have a political issue than they would provide insurance coverage to those who truly need assistance. I can say this because Democrats knew that President Bush would veto the bill. He had already told them that this expansion of coverage to include those who are clearly in the middle class was unacceptable and would be vetoed.

They also refused a compromise version which President Bush would have been glad to sign. Therefore one can only conclude that they wanted this issue for political fodder than solve the problem.

Here is the New York Times-Jazeerah coverage:

Bush Vetoes Children’s Health Insurance Bill

By DAVID STOUT
Published: October 3, 2007

WASHINGTON, Oct. 3 — President Bush vetoed the children’s health insurance bill today, as he had promised to do, setting the stage for more negotiations between the White House and Congress.

Mr. Bush wielded his pen with no fanfare just before leaving for a visit to Lancaster, Pa. The veto was only the fourth of Mr. Bush’s presidency.

“Because the Congress has chosen to send me a bill that moves our health care system in the wrong direction, I must veto it,” Mr. Bush said in his veto statement, adding that he hoped to work with the lawmakers “to produce a good bill that puts poorer children first.”

The bill was approved by Congress with unusual bipartisan support, as many Republicans who side with the president on almost everything else voted to expand the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, or Schip, from its current enrollment of about 6.6 million children to more than 10 million.

For Ted Kennedy to take to the Senate floor and claim the following when he still votes for abortion of the unborn, is an outrageous example of hypocrisy.

“Today we learned that the same president who is willing to throw away a half trillion dollars in Iraq is unwilling to spend a small fraction of that amount to bring health care to American children.”

Hey Teddy, first of all the President's primary obligation (as is yours) is the defense of the nation, something you have consistently voted against. Secondly, since when is an illegal alien an American? Last, since when is a 25 year old considered a "child?"

Then of course we have the wit and wisdom of John "the Gigolo" Kerry-Heinz who stated:

“Today with a single stroke of his veto pen, President Bush single-handedly jeopardized health care for millions of poor children.”

Hey John, he doesn't jeopardize nearly as many children as you and your pro-abortion friends kill every year.

Harry Reid that bastion of truth and integrity (and real estate) described the President's veto as "heartless" and showed just how “detached President Bush is from the priorities of the American people.” I guess the American people are far more interested in you expanding your ill-gotten wealth through "sweet-heart" real estate deals. Or maybe their more interested in your slandering of Rush Limbaugh from the Senate floor.

The SCHIP expansion was based on lies. It was to be financed by a cigarette tax. Of course this is a classic "sin-tax" which is the most regressive form of taxation. It disproportionately hits the poorest families. In addition to placing an additional tax-burden on those who can least afford it (the same people this program is supposed to be helping), the revenues from such a tax will be ever decreasing as people quit smoking because they cannot afford the habit, or because they will turn to the black market for cigarettes.

Like all Liberal programs this expansion is a poorly thought out "feel good" legislation which at best is a patch-work repair of a bad socialist program. If Democrats actually cared about providing health-care to all poor children they would pass a law making payments for insurance a direct tax deduction. This would bring millions of people into the private healthcare system rather than creating a huge bureaucracy and move us further in the direction of a Canadian type of single payer system.

Until Democrats stop supporting the murder of millions of unborn children every year in the form of abortion, they have absolutely no moral standing to criticize the President.

Long Live Our American Republic!!!

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