Bush Vetoes Children's Health Insurance Program Expansion

As promised, Bush vetoed the expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) earlier today. As the AP notes (in an article with a glaring typo in its title), "The White House sought as little attention as possible, with the president wielding his veto behind closed doors without any fanfare or news coverage."

Yeah. Duh. This is one of the more hardheaded and heartless things that the Administration has done yet, so it's not surprising that Bush would try to slip it in under the radar. Just tell that, though, to the 3.3 million kids who would have been added to SCHIP under the expansion, and to the 6.6 million who currently rely on the program... which, by they way, has already expired (as of the end of September).

The Senate has enough votes to override the veto, and the House isn't too hopelessly far off. Let's just hope that some of these Republicans still holding out can grow a heart and/or some balls and stand up to the President on this one.

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Just tell the kids that they can't get medical coverage because we must remove weapons of mass destruction (nope), bring freedom to the Iraqis (is that what we did), fix the terrorism problem and civil war that we created (now we're onto it). Not to mention, cover our asses after the latest Blackwater trouble.

He's the decider, and he had to deciderate one way or another, so he decided to leave the health deciding up to the childrens. Who are learning.

When is the override attempt of Shrub's latest veto in the Senate? I would like to watch it on C-Span 2.

By Phillip A Reed… (not verified) on 09 Oct 2007 #permalink