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Deja Vu: Bush Promises Veto After House Passes New Child Health Care Bill |
The U.S. House today voted again to provide health care coverage for 10 million children whose families can’t afford it. Today’s vote (265-142) on a revised bill to reauthorize the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) won overwhelming bipartisan support, but not enough to overcome another veto by President Bush.
With Bush ready to veto another SCHIP bill, it is unclear what the next step will be after today’s vote. Temporary funding and authorization for the program both expire Nov. 16.
Bush vetoed Congress’ first attempt to reauthorize the program to provide health care for more than 6 million children currently covered plus an additional 4 million. Last week, the House fell 13 votes short of the two-thirds majority needed to override the veto.
The newest SCHIP bill includes several adjustments in areas that Republican lawmakers who backed Bush’s veto said they objected to. Much of the anti-SCHIP rhetoric was based on a distorted description of the previous bill and what some House members called outright lies, including smear attacks on a 12 year-old boy and his family.
During today’s debate, Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-Md.) said:
With these changes, we will see if my Republican colleagues concerns are assuaged or if their complaints were just empty rhetoric to provide them with an excuse for voting against children’s health insurance.
The bill will tighten the restriction on undocumented immigrants receiving SCHIP benefits, cap the income levels of families eligible for coverage, move adults out of SCHIP faster and include new provisions to encourage SCHIP families to keep private health insurance. The bill still provides the funds needed to provide coverage for 10 million children.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) says:
The focus is on the poor children. These are poor children. The poorest children receive their health care through Medicaid. Then just above that tier, the working poor families, the focus is there and we’re very proud of the legislation….We hope this time the president will sign the bill.
Bill Scheer writes at TomPaine.com that maybe we shouldn’t be holding our breath because just after the new bill was announced, the White House whipped out a so-called “fact sheet’ that is just as bogus as Bush’s previous claims. This time, the administration uses some sort of twisted logic to come up with the conclusion that families that can’t afford health insurance aren’t poor enough.
But as Scheer says:
SCHIP has never been about providing health coverage to kids in poverty. That’s the purpose of Medicaid. SCHIP is about providing health coverage to kids who are not in poverty, but whose parents still can’t afford insurance.
During the SCHIP debate, the White House and its conservative allies have already managed to advertise their complete callousness to the struggles of working families.
Now they are advertising their failures to reduce poverty.
Once again, Mission Accomplished.
4 Comments
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Once again Mr. Partisan, the dictator of our land, gets a microphone, and states he “will not pass a partisan bill.” He caves to the tobacco industry, and continues the spin about insuring “those who can afford their own insurance.”
This guy who swears he is a Christian, has had his god talk to him, cannot find it in his shriveled heart to sign a bill that does GOOD for the nation. Then he has the audacity to ask Congress for more $$ for his war game, USING our troops as the prop saying they need ALL the equipment they can use. What about the equipment they are using now? Who are they fighting?
Congress: SAY NO TO THE BLANK CHECK! This sick excuse of a president has to learn to compromise. $$ spent in Iraq is needed to bring the troops Home!
$$ is needed for our children here in the USA! $$ is needed for helping the folks in New Orleans, California, the hungry, the homeless in America.
squandering $$ with his scandaled privatized army, missing billions in Iraq, and he wants more.
I’m with you TrueDemocrat,by the time this administration is done, there will be more homeless people than ever before. It is already happening. There are 1,000 homeless children in Peoria Illinois looking for coats and blankets to keep them warm in the streets and shelters. The cost of living is too high and paychecks are too low period! People,really cannot afford their healthcare,when thay can barely pay other life sustaining costs!Why aren’t more people storming the streets over this? Oh yeah, thay are at work,hoping that peanutbutter spreads until payday.
I think that President Bush is out of touch with the American people. He tries to privatise Social Security and now he vetos healthcare for disadvantaged kids. He is also anti-labor and nominates Judge Leslie Southwick to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals who is also anti-labor. Thank you. David O’Malley
To steal from the Simpsons “Won’t someone please think of the insurance companies!!” After all even though this is private insruance, these peolple will actually take thier kids to the doctor-no profit in that.