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Ill Will: Bush Vetoes Children’s Health Bill |
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Shunning the wishes of the majority of the public and snubbing members of his own party who support ensuring that millions of America’s children will have access to health care, President Bush today vetoed the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) renewal bill.
Bush refused to listen to many leading Republican lawmakers who joined with nearly every Democrat in the House and Senate who voted to reauthorize the program.
The president ignored the 4 million additional children who would be eligible for health care coverage under the reauthorization—joining the 6.6 million already enrolled.
He disregarded the 81 percent of Democrats, 69 percent of independents and 61 percent of Republicans who told an ABC News-Washington Post poll they support the $35 billion increase in the bill so more children get health coverage.
He vetoed the children’s health bill two days after he declared Oct. 1 as Child Health Day.
Says AFL-CIO President John Sweeney:
The president’s decision to veto legislation that would provide health care to millions of children is nothing short of disgraceful. With the sweep of a pen, he has slammed the door on these children’s best opportunity to grow up healthy and to reach their fullest potential.
As if to add insult to injury, the president vetoed health insurance for children in the same week as he proclaimed an official “Child Health Day”…Our children need a lot more than rhetoric to grow into healthy and productive adults. If President Bush really wants to show commitment to children’s health, he should give them annual check-ups, vaccinations and regular contact with a pediatrician who knows and cares about them – he shouldn’t just give them a press release.
Funding for the program expired Sept. 30, but Congress passed a continuing resolution to keep government agencies open that haven’t had their appropriations bills approved and included money to fund SCHIP at current levels through Nov. 16. However, each day without a reauthorization bill signed into law is another day that the 4 million children made eligible under the vetoed bill will have to unnecessarily go without health insurance.
It takes a two-thirds majority to override a veto, and the 67–29 Senate vote to approve children health bill is expected to hold up. But the 265–159 House vote fails about 25 votes short of what is needed to override the veto.
It is unclear when an override vote will take place, but under congressional rules, the House will be the first to vote because that is where the bill originated.
The AFL-CIO and affiliated unions, child welfare groups, health care providers, community, religious and civil rights groups plan to mobilize to find the needed House votes to override Bush’s veto.
Meanwhile, a coalition of eight states—Arizona, California, Illinois, Maryland, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York and Washington—have sued the Bush administration, objecting to new rules that “make it harder for them to provide coverage to children in middle-income families.”
6 Comments
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This man is not grounded in our reality. He does not care what people think because he firmly belives that all his actions are approved by God. I have experoince with this, my brother long ago replaced acid and meth with God. He used to pray for the toast to come out the right shade and for the fish to bite if it was His Will. he also belived that anyuthing he did in the name of the lord was ok-up to and including homicide. Luckily he has outgrown that phase-sadly I don’t think our president has. If (as he seems to belive) job one is armegedon and the rapture the rest, inlcuding most of the population just don’t matter
I have had it with being responsible as a smoker for whatever ailes the nation. The children’s healthcare issue is a societal issue and NOT a smoker’s issue. Why don’t we tax people who drink energy drinks or eat fast food? Last time I looked discrimination was against the law and this is blatantly discrimination against smokers. The poor can get government sponsored healthcare….it’s the working poor and lower income families that make too much to get help and not enough to pay for their own insurance.
Bush will go down in history as the best friend of corporate America and the wealthy and the enemy of children, unions and mainstream America….He has lost touch with reality and is a puppet to special interests which will earn him a permanent place on the list of top ten worst presidents.
There is no depth Bush will not stoop to. Billions on a failed Iraq policy - nothing for America’s children.
SCHIP a poem by Dave Hurlburt 9-24-2007
Bush Bush what do you say! you will veto SCHIP today!
How many children will your veto kill each day.
How much money will you make emergency rooms pay!
Causing all of us higher health care cost because of delay!
Preventative care and regular checkup are the way to go.
Even your own party says they will override your veto.
Our children need health care now. Do not cause a delay.
You need to sign SCHIP and you need to do it today!
Your Political ideas not to raise taxes are short sighted
If you veto SCHIP your mistake will be righted.
Parents, children, and the congress are united.
See the Healthy children and you will be delighted!
David Hurlburt CWA local 9410
I think that what President Bush did to America’s children, as well as what he did to America’s citizens on Medicare ( this bill also would have taken the outrageous funding on Medicare Advantage Plans and put it back into the budget for traditional fee for service Medicare) is despicable. Now with this Imperial minded administration ready to go to war in Iran ( read Seymour Hersch’s article in the new New Yorker) and with all the tax cuts for the wealthy and the incredible waste of money on Irag, we as Americans, seem to be fighting not only for our own economic futures but the most vulnerable of our society: our sick and economically deprived children. This is most definitely not the country I was brought up in and which my 93 year old UAW father struggled to make better.