Bush Radio 10/6/07: "I strongly support SCHIP"

[Amerigo Vespucci]

For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
October 6, 2007

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/10/20071006.html



THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. One important commitment of the Federal government is to help America's poorest children get access to health care. Most of these children are covered by Medicaid, which will spend more than $35 billion to help them this fiscal year. For children who do not qualify for Medicaid, but whose families are struggling, we have the State Children's Health Insurance Program, or SCHIP.

Washington is now in the midst of an important debate over the future of this vital program. I strongly support SCHIP. My Administration has added more than 2 million children to SCHIP since 2001. And our 2008 budget increases SCHIP funding by 20 percent over five years.

Unfortunately, more than 500,000 poor children who are eligible for SCHIP coverage are not enrolled in the program. At the same time, many States are spending SCHIP funds on adults. In fact, based on their own projections for this fiscal year, Minnesota, Illinois, New Jersey, Michigan, Rhode Island, and New Mexico will spend more SCHIP money on adults than they do on children. And that is not the purpose of the program.

This week, congressional leaders sent me a deeply flawed bill that would move SCHIP even further from its original purpose. Here are some of the problems with Congress's plan: Under their plan, one out of every three children who moves onto government coverage would drop private insurance. In other words, millions of children would move out of private health insurance and onto a government program. Congress's plan would also transform a program for poor children into one that covers children in some households with incomes up to $83,000. Congress's plan would raise taxes on working people. And Congress's plan does not even fully fund all the new spending. If their plan becomes law, five years from now Congress would have to choose between throwing people off SCHIP -- or raising taxes a second time.

Congress's SCHIP plan is an incremental step toward their goal of government-run health care for every American. Government-run health care would deprive Americans of the choice and competition that comes from the private market. It would cause huge increases in government spending. It would result in rationing, inefficiency, and long waiting lines. It would replace the doctor-patient relationship with dependency on bureaucrats in Washington, D.C. And it is the wrong direction for our country.

Congress knew that I would veto this bill, yet they sent it anyway. So on Wednesday, I vetoed the SCHIP bill. And I asked Members of Congress to come together and work with me on a responsible bill that I can sign -- so we can keep this important program serving America's poor children.

When it comes to SCHIP, we should be guided by a clear principle: Put poor children first. I urge Republicans and Democrats in Congress to support a bill that moves adults off this children's program -- and covers children who do not qualify for Medicaid, but whose families are struggling. If putting poor children first takes a little more than the 20 percent increase I have proposed in my budget for SCHIP, I am willing to work with leaders in Congress to find the additional money.

Ultimately, our Nation's goal should be to move children who have no health insurance to private coverage -- not to move children who already have private health insurance to government coverage. By working together, Republicans and Democrats can strengthen SCHIP, ensure that it reaches the children who need it, and find ways to help more American families get the private health coverage they need.

Thank you for listening.

[Frances]

1. Does anyone believe anything that Bush says?

[Botany]

2. If he told me it was cold and dark on Jan 1 @ midnight in Nome, AK

I would put on shorts & sun block

[MissWaverly]

3. I wasn't mean to sick kids, I was looking out for them

that's why I vetoed this "deeply flawed" bill, smirk, smirk.

Why is it that anything he disagrees with is deeply flawed, why didn't he just attach a signing statement to
it like he did to all those other bills he disagreed with saying the money was not to be used for adults.

Oh, no, these are dems so he has to use a veto.

[jmp]

4. Democrats say they won't back down

Oct. 5, 2007, 12:37AM
WASHINGTON NOTEBOOK

Democrats reject health compromise

Calling President Bush insulting and detached from reality, top congressional Democrats said Thursday they will not compromise with him on a children's health program that Bush vetoed.

Bush on Wednesday vetoed a bill that would have added $35 billion, over five years, to the State Children's Health Insurance Program. Bush has proposed a $5 billion increase.

Democratic lawmakers say they hope the House will override the veto on Oct. 18, even though members of both parties privately call that a long shot.

On Wednesday, Bush said was he was willing to compromise with lawmakers "if they need a little more money in the bill to help us meet the objective of getting help for poor children."

Top Democrats said they are uninterested in further negotiations.

"The president, what he has done with his macho pen, is really hurt children," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/politics/5190053.html

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Soooooo when will the Dems cave? :eyes:

[lovuian]

5. Everything he says is the opposite Its amazing

He vetoes Scjo and then he says we must have it

He speaks the opposite of his actions

[momster]

6. Jeez, Opposite Day Again?

Oh, I forgot. Everyday is opposite day with the Bush Administration. "We don't torture...ha-ha, Opposite Day!" "Children Shouldn't Be Used as Political Props...Opposite Day!" "We Value Life...We're not spying on you...We support the Troops...." Explains an effing lot.

[Webster Green]

7. The chimp is the one who is "deeply flawed"..

Deepest I've ever seen.

He is an utterly useless piece-'o-shit!

[FormerDittoHead]

11. Maybe he and Cheney should stop using the socialize medical care they get from the VA.. n/t

[FormerDittoHead]

8. Why let upper class kids go to public schools? Doesn't it hurt the private school system?

I read a commentary yesterday make this point, and it's a good one:

http://www.ajc.com/opinion/content/opinion/stories/2007/10/04/meyersoned_1005.html

Just outside our nation's capital, in affluent Maryland and Virginia counties, they still build public schools when the number of school-age children rises above the number that the existing schools can accommodate. Beyond question, there are parents in Fairfax County, Va., and Montgomery County, Md., who could easily afford to send their kids to private schools but who send them nonetheless to the excellent public schools in their neighborhoods. They thus increase government spending and withhold revenue from the private-school industry, but I've never heard anyone complain about that. A free public education is a right, or, if you prefer, an entitlement in America, because the nation long ago decided that an educated population is a national good....

[kestrel91316]

12. Wish I could K&R THIS post. Very good point.

[kurth]

9. "The choice and competition that comes from the private market"

We know the choice and competition in the drug industry for Medicare.

[frogcycle]

10. Goodbye, and thanks for all the fish

[Amerigo Vespucci]

13. That final photo...when it's the REAL "final" photo...is going to be SWEET.

Then he can focus all of his efforts on "givin' some speeches, just to replenish the ol' coffers."

We, meanwhile, will be free at last to wipe our backsides with his "legacy."

:patriot:

Bush's great ambition: wealthy boredom

Ed Pilkington in New York
Monday September 3, 2007
The Guardian



Jimmy Carter has dedicated his life after the White House to conflict resolution around the world. Presidents George Bush the elder and Bill Clinton have campaigned together on behalf of communities devastated by Hurricane Katrina. So how does President George Bush junior imagine spending his retirement years?

"I can just envision getting in the car, getting bored, going down to the ranch," he says. He also has big plans for making money. "I'll give some speeches, to replenish the ol' coffers," says Mr Bush, who is already estimated to be worth $20m. "I don't know what my dad gets - it's more than 50-75 (thousand dollars a speech), and "Clinton's making a lot of money".

The insights into Mr Bush's ambitions once he steps down from the most powerful job on Earth in January 2009 are contained in a series of interviews he gave to a journalist from GQ magazine. It may be that the writer, Robert Draper, comes from Texas, like his subject, but whatever the reason, Mr Bush has chosen to be singularly open with the author and provide a rare glimpse into the inner life of a very private president.

During the course of six one-hour interviews, Mr Bush, feet up on his desk, munching on low-fat hotdogs, tells Draper of the loneliness of the US commander-in-chief. "Self-pity is the worst thing that can happen to a presidency. This is a job where you can have a lot of self-pity," Mr Bush says.