Bush vows to veto healthcare for children

He's pathetic. Just when you think he's slithered as low as he can go, President Bush says some asinine comment that shows how (a) out of touch, and (b) heartless he is.

On July 10th, Bush vowed to veto a bill with bipartisan support that would add $35 billion to the State Children’s Health Insurance Program over the next five years by increasing federal taxes on cigarettes.

His reasoning? He thinks it means putting more power in the hands of the government by expanding federal health care programs and empowering bureaucrats to make medical decisions. (Ronald Reagan and his '80s neo cons tried that same tired line about too much government expansion, and you know what? They named the biggest new federal building in Washington DC after him! Hypocrites!)

How out of touch is Bush? At a town hall in Cleveland this month, he said “I mean, people have access to health care in America. After all, you just go to an emergency room.” Spoken like the man he is: someone who has never wanted for anything. Papa Bush and Mama Bush always took good care of their boy, I am sure. And even when he drove his oil company into the ground (and then walked away with a profit) and gouged the city of Arlington when he was an owner of the Texas Rangers baseball team, he never had to worry about how the bills would get paid.

That's right, Georgie. Just go to an emergency room. It's not like they'll send you a bill later, or anything.

The Congressional Budget Office recently concluded that S-CHIP will need about $14 billion in new money over five years just to keep covering the same number of children, in part because of rising health-care costs.

From Common Dreams:

Republican Sen. Gordon Smith originally introduced the SCHIP budget resolution in the Senate. Unlike Bush, who is not up for re-election, Smith is defending his vulnerable Senate seat in 2008, in the blue state of Oregon. He, like other Republicans who are breaking with Bush on the war in Iraq, is sensitive to Bush’s domestic policies. Georgetown University’s Center for Children and Families just released a poll that says 91 percent of Americans support the expansion of SCHIP to cover more kids.

Repeat after me: January 20, 2009.