Posted on 12/12/2007 8:06:14 AM PST by SmithL
WASHINGTON, (AP) -- President Bush on Wednesday was ready to veto legislation that passed with bipartisan support to dramatically expand government-provided health insurance for children.
It would be Bush's seventh veto in seven years. Bush vetoed an earlier version of the health insurance program.
The bill passed the Democratic-controlled Senate by a veto-proof margin, but the same was not true in the House. Even after the bill was approved, negotiations continued on a compromise version.
A major point of contention with the White House was Bush's demand that nearly all poor children eligible for the program be found and enrolled before those in slightly higher-income families could be covered.
Bush also has opposed using an increased tobacco tax to fund the program expansion. The bill includes a 61-cent rise on a package of cigarettes.
The replacement measure was designed to meet Republican objections to the first bill. But it was little changed.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Regardless of W’s past spending this is good.
Once again, the evil Bush throws the chirren under the bus. </sarcasm>
Hoo-rah!!! We don’t need socialized medicine, we need tort reform.
Says who? I pay $500 a month to cover my daughter. I'm not all thrilled to pay for someone elses kids, thank you.
PA runs ads on radio at times telling people to sign kids up for FREE health care with NO limitation on family income. Why should I, or anyone else, pay for health insurance for someone else's kids?
My thought as well. They never cease to be so predictable.
How much MORE can they pile on to smokers?
Already paying for the Tobacco Settlement (which was supposedly to pay States back for the costs of healthcare incurred due to the smokers but was used purely to put Billions into Lawyers' pockets and into the General Funds of States to dole out on pet projects), plus all the staduiums built with "sin taxes", plus all the county and state taxes added to the backs of smokers, etc.
When the Fat Tax comes, all the fatasses who thought they had no problem when the "smokers" were being singled out as the fund source for this scam, now can rise up and complain that they are being "un-fairly" attacked with this "Twinkie Tax" on their habit.....
As we speak scores of editorial cartoonists are sketching the President as Scrooge.
Good. He needs to keep that veto pen handy for future bills heading his way.
The question is when will families quit squirting out children they can’t support? I say they should be sent a bill for every dime the tax base has to spend on their family.
Were Huckabee the current POTUS, he would sign it. This is basically the federal version of the ArKidsFirst socialized medical system he implemented here in Arkansas.
That is what I was thinking. I pay for my own kids health care - through premiums, high deductibles, and co-pays. It is time for folks to carry their own load.
Tort reform would help as well.
Better late than never. It would have been nice to see this sort of thing years ago, but I’ll sure as hell take it now.
This is good. It’s just too bad he doesn’t veto his own programs!
WASHINGTON, March 31 — The Bush administration says it will strenuously resist Democratic plans for a threefold expansion of the Children’s Health Insurance Program, ensuring a clash with Congress over the most important health care legislation being considered this year.
Administration officials said that much of the new government coverage proposed by Democrats would simply replace private insurance, and they expressed concern about a sharp increase in the proportion of children covered by public programs in the last decade.
Dennis G. Smith, the federal official in charge of Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program, said 45 percent of all children were now covered by the two programs, up from 28 percent in 1998.
“The original intent of the Children’s Health Insurance Program was to cover low-income children who were uninsured,” Mr. Smith said in an interview. Democratic proposals to cover millions of additional children “would change the complexion of the program and take it away from its original intent,” he said.
“At higher income levels,” Mr. Smith said, “families are more likely to have private health insurance. If they become eligible for the Children’s Health Insurance Program, you are more likely to be substituting public for private coverage. You could add billions of dollars to the program without insuring many new kids.”
EXCERPTED, check at the link.
Its nice to actually say Bush is doing something right.
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