President Bush lies and threatens our children's health, DeGette and Salazar fight back

by: Zappatero

07/18/07 @ 11:43:19 AM MDT

President Bush's culture of life lives on in the form of a veto threat to reauthorization and improvements to the State Children's Health Insurance Program. The President has vetoed federal money for stem-cell research, a structured but swift end to our involvement in Iraq, and now threatens to keep children off state health insurance programs by vetoing the updated law. Here's what Ken Salazar had to say about the deadly culture of life our Compassionate Conservative-in-Chief  promotes:

It is unconscionable that the President would announce a veto threat before we have even begun to mark up the SCHIP bill in Committee.

Reauthorizing SCHIP is a no-brainer.

It has become a critical resource that provides much needed coverage to children who would otherwise go uninsured.

It is our moral and economic obligation in Washington to invest in our children’s healthcare, as our investment today, will pay off tomorrow.

I certainly hope Ken doesn't think Bush has a conscience. Nor is Bush guided by any moral obligation he feels to poor children.

The fact that Bush used the same rhetoric while he was governor of Texas to promote a plan that cut 200,00 children from that state's roles (in the very same program) proves he doesn't feel an obligation. It is also most likely true that Bush has a brain. As to its functionality, I don't think any of us can be sure. Ken is right that it should be a "no-brainer" that we extend and improve this program. But Bush, veto pen firmly in hand, plows stubbornly ahead with his threat.

There seems to be an argument that private insurance is better than public on this issue. Michael Moore has taken the public side and has done a good job promoting the facts and discussion. And anytime you get the President to directly respond to an issue you are promoting you know you've done something right. 

But as we go through this debate, with one side promoting more and better children's health care, and the other side promoting private companies whose job it is to keep that health care to a minimum, we should remember who is compassionate, who wants to responsibly care for the poorest among us, and who claims god is on their side while continually acting against the principles they promote for all but themselves.