Screw The Kids

Mr. Compassionate Conservative has vetoed the S-CHIP bill.

The bill was approved by Congress with unusual bipartisan support, as many Republicans who side with the president on almost everything else voted to expand the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, or Schip, from its current enrollment of about 6.6 million children to more than 10 million...

Gov. Jon Corzine of New Jersey said: “Once again, President Bush has missed an opportunity to display compassionate leadership. Instead, he has resorted to political and ideological gamesmanship rather than seek a bipartisan solution that would protect this nation’s most vulnerable children.”

Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, said: “We have no choice but to try to override his veto. The Senate already has the votes to do it, so it is now up to the holdouts in the House to decide whether to vote their conscience or join the president in putting ideology above kids.”

The Senate voted with a veto-proof majority, 67-29. The House is a couple of dozen votes short of the two-thirds needed to override Raisinbrain's veto. Now we'll see what the Republicans are made of. Are they going to do what's best for their constituents or are they following the Pied Piper of Pissants down the road to unelectability?

And can we please stop saying that this bill is a step towards the "evil" of socialized medicine? If socialized medicine is so evil, then I defy any Republican elected official to stop using it. Let Bush go somewhere else to get his pre-cancerous polyps removed from is ass. Let Darth Cheney go to the local hospital to recharge his pacemaker batteries instead of going to Bethesda Naval Hospital. If this bill can help an extra 3.5 million children to receive health care, what's the problem? Do we seriously believe that a family of four pulling in about $50,000 a year before taxes can actually afford health insurance at a cost of $500-700 a month? If you do, do the math and stop kidding yourself.