You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure out that Bush just flat hates America. In his recent assault, he has chosen to deny the smallest voices in this country, our children.
Mr. Elitist doesn’t think health care for the kids his worth his time or our taxes. So in a few short months when the SCHIPS program expires, sick children will not be able to go to the doctor, hospitals or get their medicine. Thank you George!
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.
- 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.”
Private insurance companies are far more important that the government run health care program for kids.
- 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.
- Grassley and Hatch, in a joint statement this week, implored the president to rescind his veto threat. They warned that Democrats might seek an expansion of $50 billion or more if there is no compromise.
- They also said that Bush should drop efforts to link the program’s renewal to his six-month-old proposal to replace the long-standing tax break for employer-based health insurance with a new tax deduction that would help people pay for insurance, regardless of whether they get it through their jobs or purchase it on their own.
It’s all about tax cut and tax breaks. Bush can’t do one damn thing that doesn’t have conditional strings attached. He can not give health care to kids unless we give tax breaks. These programs are very separate issues, that do not need to be linked. They don’t even go through the same committees. Oh that’s right, procedure doesn’t matter to presidents Putz.
- “I’m not going to surrender a good and important idea before the debate really gets started,” Bush said. “And I think it’s going to be very important for our allies on Capitol Hill to hear a strong, clear message from me that expansion of government in lieu of making the necessary changes to encourage a consumer-based system is not acceptable.”
Actually George, the government is larger now than it was when you took office in 2000. Not only is it larger but it runs less efficiently and spend more money.
- Rep. Rahm Emanuel (Ill.), the House Democratic Caucus chairman, said he is “bewildered” that Bush is fighting the expanded funding for a program supported by Republicans and Democrats alike. “This is the chance for him to finally be a uniter and not a divider,” Emanuel said. “You have consensus across party and ideology, and a unity on the most important domestic issue, health care — except for one person.”
Interesting the guy who stops government health care for kids is on govenrment health care himself. After all we do pay his insurance and his salary.
