Tough Luck, Kids
October 3rd, 2007 at 11:03 am
President Bush vetoed the bill to renew — and expand — the Children’s Health Insurance Program this morning. Here’s the Washington Post story on the veto. Though the bill has broad support from Democrats and Republicans, it appears the U.S. House lacks the votes to override Bush’s veto.
Congress can continue extending CHIP — which would have expired on September 30 — on a temporary basis. Congressional Democrats have threatened to keep sending Bush the same bill until he relents and signs it. But there’s only so long Democrats can play that game. State governments need to know how much money they will receive for CHIP to budget for the coming year. Unless they scrounge up enough votes to override, Congressional Democrats will eventually have to negotiate a smaller CHIP bill with the White House. That could cause hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of kids to remain uninsured.
Bush seems to think the CHIP expansion — $35 billion over five years — is too pricey. After signing the veto papers, he flew off to Lancaster, Pa., for an event to promote restraint in federal spending. (Keep in mind that CHIP helps kids lead healthier lives, which saves money in the long run.)
Just for comparison, the proposed CHIP expansion of $35 billion (over five years) is about three months’ worth of spending in Iraq. The total allocated funds for the war in Iraq is surging past $600 billion, which would have paid for CHIP expansion 20 times over.
October 4th, 2007 at 8:25 am
Senate candidate Rick Noriega lost my support for good when he voted for the Flynn amendment to House Bill 109, which makes Texas into the policeman in charge of doing a citizenship check before providing CHIP health care to the children of immigrants without papers.
Texas Representatives Allen, Alonzo, Burnam, Castro, Chavez, Coleman, Y. Davis, Dukes, Dunnam, Dutton, Escobar, Flores, Gallego, Giddings, Gonzales, Guillen, Hernandez, Herrero, Hodge, Leibowitz, Lucio, Martinez-Fischer, McClendon, Miles, Moreno, Naishtat, Olivo, Peña, Rodriguez, Thompson, and Villarreal voted that Texas shouldn’t have to be the immigration gestapo when kids show up for medical treatment.
Noriega’s vote will mean that children don’t get the medical treatment they need, and I’ll never support him!