Bush has called a congressional plan to provide medical coverage for children currently in between Medicare and other health plans "irresponsible" and has promised to veto it.
I haven't investigated the particulars of the plan. I do believe we need to make major changes in the American health care system, but we also need to make sure someone can pay for whatever changes we might make. Bush has no better answer.
But it is hypocritical in the extreme for Bush to say a word about irresponsible uses of funds in the face of his frivolous war and Sec. of Defense Gates' trip to Congress this week for yet more billions well beyond the billions already budgeted. Whether wise or not, at least Congress is asking for funds that would actually help someone. Bush's war has helped no one, but it has killed or maimed tens of thousands who would otherwise be living, and that with their limbs in tact.
3 comments:
It does seem rather odd that Bush would choose to make a stand on this legislation. Like you I don't know all arguments, pro and con, but there are some interesting facts:
- The original SCHIP program was created under sponsorship of Republicans in Congress.
- The expanded program is much more than a partisan Democratic initiative. A number of Republicans voted for the measure. Not all of them are motivated by reelection concerns. Orrin Hatch is a vocal supporter, and he has a secure seat from the most Republican state in the country, Utah.
- It's not necessarily a big government / anticapitalistic measure. Even some key voices in the insurance industry approve.
Some have argued that the expanded program will extend benefits to families who don't really need them. But laws can never be drawn perfectly. If for every 100 new families that will receive benefits there is one that doesn't deserve it, I'm OK with that. It sure seem niggly to deny the other 99 because of the one. And it is surely dishonest to represent the one exception as the typical case.
Regardless of whether the bill is good or bad, the Democrats are clearly using the SCHIP bill as a PR weapon against their political opponents, and a way to further split the GOP Congress from the Bush administration. While I don't admire the Democrats for using this tactic, it's hardly surprising, given the beating that THEY have unfairly received over the past few years with Bush and team using the 9/11 attack and the Iraq War for political gain.
Do you ever blog about anything besides politics?
Election weary,
athada
In Ken's defense, this is an extraordinary time in American politics. We should be talking about it. A lot.
I just finished reading Roth's novel "The Plot Against America". Not long ago that book would have seemed an outlandish fable. But now, with the PATRIOT Act and the perpetual Global War on Terror and suspension of habeus corpus and government-approved torture and the prison at Guantanamo and secret prisons elsewhere and warrantless wiretapping and a flood of National Security Letters, Roth is more of a prophet than alarmist.
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