Jolie Rouge

surprise, surprise, surprise ...

__________________
Laissez les bon temps rouler! Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.** a 4 day work week & sex slaves ~ I say Tyt for PRESIDENT! Not to be taken internally, literally or seriously ....Suki ebaynni IS THAT BETTER ?

Jolie Rouge

Child health veto will be election issue
By DAVID ESPO, AP Special Correspondent
13 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - President Bush cast a quiet veto Wednesday against a politically attractive expansion of children's health insurance, triggering a struggle with the Democratic-controlled Congress certain to reverberate into the 2008 elections. "Congress will fight hard to override President Bush's heartless veto," vowed Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada.

Republican leaders expressed confidence they have enough votes to make the veto stick in the House, and not a single senior Democrat disputed them. A two-thirds majority in both houses of Congress is required to override a veto.

Bush vetoed the bill in private, absent the television cameras and other media coverage that normally attend even routine presidential actions. The measure called for adding an estimated 4 million mostly lower-income children to a program that currently covers 6.6 million. Funds for the expansion would come from higher tobacco taxes, including a 61-cent increase on a pack of cigarettes. "Poor kids first," Bush said later in explaining his decision, reflecting a concern that some of the bill's benefits would go to families at higher incomes. "Secondly, I believe in private medicine, not the federal government running the health care system," he added in remarks to an audience in Lancaster, Pa.

The president said he is willing to compromise with Congress "if they need a little more money in the bill to help us meet the objective of getting help for poor children."

It was the fourth veto of Bush's presidency, at a time his popularity is low, the legislation popular enough to draw support from dozens of GOP lawmakers, and an override certain to seal his lame-duck status.

Democratic leaders scheduled the showdown for Oct. 18 to allow two weeks for pressure to build on Republicans. A union-led organization said it would spend more than $3 million trying to influence the outcome. "It's going to be a hard vote for Republicans," promised Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

Criticism of the veto was instantaneous, from every quarter of the Democratic political firmament.

Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware, a presidential hopeful, called it unconscionable, party chairman Howard Dean labeled it appalling, and Pelosi said, "It's very sad that the president has chosen to veto a bill that would provide health care for ten million American children for the next five years."

Republicans said none of the criticism would matter. "I'm confident that the more time we have to explain the veto, the more people will be with their position,' said Rep. Roy Blunt of Missouri, second-ranking GOP leader in the House.

Longer term, Republicans said their goal was to sustain the veto and force Democrats into negotiations on a compromise that GOP lawmakers could embrace. "Democrats now face an important choice: Either work with Republicans to renew this program or continue to play politics on the backs of our nation's children," said Rep. John Boehner of Ohio, the House Republican leader.

He and other Republicans said Democratic plans to delay an override vote revealed an eagerness to score political points. The Democratic legislation would add $35 billion to the program over five years to expand coverage. Bush argued the bill was too costly, took the program too far beyond its original intent of helping the poor and would entice people with private insurance to switch to government coverage. He has proposed a $5 billion increase in funding.

Democrats, sensing a political advantage, said they were in no mood to compromise. Several officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were discussing strategy, said Pelosi and Reid seemed set on sending Bush successor bills that are nearly identical with the one he just vetoed. The goal would be to force him — and his congressional allies — to repeatedly expose themselves to criticism that they were denying health care for kids.

Both sides took comfort from polling data as they settled in for their struggle.

Democracy Corps, which offers advice to Democrats, said its poll showed the public sides with Democrats by a margin of 60-35. The veto battle "gives Democrats a large advantage with independents, as well as mobilizing Democratic supporters. Indeed, the president has not won over Republican voters on this issue," said an accompanying memo.

House Republicans quietly distributed a survey by David Winston, who is close to Boehner, that came to a different conclusion. It said critics of the legislation can win the public debate if they say they favor "covering uninsured children without expanding government coverage to adults, illegal immigrants and those who already have insurance...." A copy of the poll was obtained by The Associated Press.

Numerous polls have shown health insurance to be an important issue with the public, and Democrats have made expansion of the children's health program a priority since taking control of Congress in January.

Health care also has figured prominently in the campaign for the White House, with presidential hopefuls in both parties sketching plans to reduce the swelling population of the uninsured, now estimated by the Census Bureau to number 47 million.

There was no doubting the bill's political appeal.

Eighteen Republicans in the Senate supported the measure when it passed, including four who face difficult challenges next year. In the House, 45 GOP lawmakers defected.

There were 265 votes in all for the measure when it passed last month. Supporters need to pick up 25 more votes to override the veto.

Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland said a few of the eight Democrats who originally voted no — principally because of the tax increase — would switch sides, and one or two more votes were available from a small group that was absent on the earlier vote.

But 151 Republicans opposed the bill when it passed, enough to sustain the veto, and absent numerous switches, Bush's veto seemed secure. "We got what we wanted," said Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma, chairman of the GOP campaign committee and an opponent of the bill.

"Once they vote it's pretty hard to change," conceded Sen. Orrin Hatch, a Utah Republican who supported the legislation and said repeatedly he hoped Bush would sign it.

Some Republicans joined in the criticism of Bush. "I believe this is an irresponsible use of the veto pen," said Sen. Gordon Smith, an Oregon Republican facing a difficult re-election next year.

The original Senate vote was 67-29, enough to override. But the House votes first, and if Bush's allies sustain his veto there, the bill dies.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071004/...SQDnmRBKas0NUE

__________________
Laissez les bon temps rouler! Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.** a 4 day work week & sex slaves ~ I say Tyt for PRESIDENT! Not to be taken internally, literally or seriously ....Suki ebaynni IS THAT BETTER ?

Bahet

Yea, I'm not the least bit surprsed that Bush doesn't care about millions of kids who have no insurance. Is anyone?

janelle

Who do you think pays for all of this? YOU DO. Are you willing for your taxes to go up 1,000%? Then how are you going to pay for your own insurance?

Hillary is a socialist and we all know socialist governments do not work.

My in-laws were on Medicaid and they had so many things given to them. When my hubby worked for doctors it was the ones on Medicaid who never wanted the early morning appointments since they could not get up that early.

They were dependent on government to take care of them and had no incentive to get a job.

Jolie Rouge

Fact check: Clinton and kids' insurance
By BETH FOUHY, Associated Press Writer
57 minutes ago

NEW YORK - When she talks about health care reform on the campaign trail, Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton points to a multibillion-dollar health insurance program for children as one of her signature accomplishments.

The program, enacted in 1997, has provided $24 billion over 10 years to states to cover more than 6 million children whose families earn too much to be eligible for Medicaid but cannot afford private health insurance.

While it has enjoyed broad support on Capitol Hill, President Bush this week vetoed legislation that would have vastly expanded the program's reach.

THE CLAIM: Clinton claims significant credit for helping launch the effort — formally the state Children's Health Care Insurance Program — as first lady during her husband's second term. Her new television ads prominently mention it as evidence of her long-term commitment to health care and children.

"She changed the lives of 6 million kids when she championed the bill that gave them health insurance," says one ad. "Hillary stood up for universal health care when almost no one else would, and kept standing until 6 million kids had coverage," says another.

Is she justified in claiming so much credit?


FACT CHECK: After the first lady's effort to enact universal health insurance went down to calamitous defeat in late 1994, she and other White House officials began looking for smaller changes that could win bipartisan support. Republicans had taken control of both the House and Senate that year.

A similar effort was taking place on Capitol Hill, with Sen. Edward Kennedy playing a lead role. One area he and the Clintons explored involved expanding health insurance coverage to children who had none.

On Dec. 9, 1996, senior White House health adviser Chris Jennings sent a memo to the first lady outlining several options — and recommending ways for her to increase her visibility on the issue.

With his wife's backing, President Clinton announced a plan to expand health coverage to as many as 5 million children in his 1997 State of the Union address.

Kennedy, meanwhile, introduced legislation based on a Massachusetts model with Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch as the lead Republican co-sponsor. The bill called for $20 billion in grants to states, paid for in part by raising the federal tax on cigarettes.

Gene Sperling, a Hillary Clinton campaign adviser who served as one of President Clinton's lead budget negotiators in 1997, said efforts to include children's health coverage were constrained by a balanced budget agreement between the White House and Republican congressional leaders.

But he said Hillary Clinton pushed hard and even favored boosting the price tag to $24 billion, instead of the $16 billion that had been floated as a compromise.

"Her office was across from mine, and I knew what her priorities were," Sperling said. "I remember her having a lot of influence — you're getting this done because you know the first lady wants it."

The effort nearly went off the rails when Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, a Republican, said it violated the balanced budget agreement. President Clinton, eager to preserve the agreement, actually phoned lawmakers to kill the legislation when it came to the Senate floor.

Hillary Clinton defended her husband's action at the time. "He had to safeguard the overall budget proposal," she told one audience. But she insisted he would find other ways to provide health coverage for kids.

The effort was revived, with Kennedy, Hatch and a coalition of advocacy groups ranging from the Children's Defense Fund to the Girl Scouts lobbying hard. Kennedy made a special appeal to the first lady, who added her pressure anew.

"The children's health program wouldn't be in existence today if we didn't have Hillary pushing for it from the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue," Kennedy told The Associated Press.

President Clinton signed the bill in August 1997.

While Kennedy is widely viewed as the driving force behind the program, by all accounts the former first lady's pressure was crucial.

"She wasn't a legislator, she didn't write the law, and she wasn't the president, so she didn't make the decisions," says Nick Littlefield, then a senior health adviser to Kennedy. "But we relied on her, worked with her and she was pivotal in encouraging the White House to do it."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071005/...im_LFR5aKs0NUE
Associated Press Writer Andrew DeMillo in Little Rock, Ark., contributed to this report.

__________________
Laissez les bon temps rouler! Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.** a 4 day work week & sex slaves ~ I say Tyt for PRESIDENT! Not to be taken internally, literally or seriously ....Suki ebaynni IS THAT BETTER ?

Bahet

I'd be willing to have my insurance go up to cover the uninsured. Taxes won't go up nearly as much as you think. When uninsured people get medical care and can't and don't pay for it, we do. Tighten up medical care. Illegals that have real emergencies can get care but they have to pay for it. If it's not a real emergency, get out of the ER.

FTR, I'd pay for our insurance the same way we always do, out of our paychecks. Of course, right now we don't have insurance. DH got back from Kuwait in July and we lost our coverage then. He just got a job so in another 45 days we'll have insurance again. Bush just said our kids can't get coverage.

Incidentially, the socialist term is thrown around an awful lot with absolutely no back up. Canada, England, France, Sweden, etc all have universal health care. I didn't realize Canada was a socialist government. I also didn't realize that actually aknowledging that poor people exist and *gasp* wanting to give them a hand up was such a horrible thing. I take it you don't bother giving to charity right?

Jolie Rouge

I give to the charities of MY choice ( my time, my monies, my work ) not giving money to the goverment who then deciedes who is worthy... If you are making $85,000 you can afford your own health insurance. If you are an illegal, I should have to pay your bills.

You know NOTHING about me - or my personal views on the subject. Don't pretend that you do.

__________________
Laissez les bon temps rouler! Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.** a 4 day work week & sex slaves ~ I say Tyt for PRESIDENT! Not to be taken internally, literally or seriously ....Suki ebaynni IS THAT BETTER ?

Bahet

Ditto.

FTR, I agree that people making $85,000 can pay their own insurance and thta we shouldn't have to pay for illegals. I don't agree that people making $35,000 should be able to pay for their own health care. Heck, in some places $85,000 doesn't go very far either.

Berkley69

"NO"

Do you know how freaking high our taxes will be, it will be like Canada or Norway, where here a Ford Taurus costs $20,000, there it's $40,000. NO NO NO!

__________________
GO Red Sox! Work harder - millions on welfare depend on you!

Bahet

The kids health care was going to be paid for with a tax on cigarettes.

As a side issue, are you in favor of making abortion illegal (anyone?) If so, how do you propose to pay for the additional maternity care, health care for those kids, additional orphanages, long term care for kids who are abused via drugs that cause permanent damage, etc? No raising taxes to pay for health care for kids, even if it's a tax on cigarettes. So how pro life can you really be if you (general) want to make abortion illegal and force the kids to be born but then don't want to have to deal with the financial repercussions?

Jolie Rouge

On September 29th, 12 year old Graeme Frost of Maryland got to do the Democrats’ radio address, in which he told his story of how he and his sister were seriously injured in a car accident, and if it hadn’t been for SCHIP, they wouldn’t be here today. The Baltimore Sun did a story on the family, in which it stated the family couldn’t get health insurance through their work.



http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nat...,1093633.story

Boy to give radio address
Baltimore native to speak today for Democrats
By Matthew Hay Brown - Sun Reporter
September 29, 2007

WASHINGTON - Earlier in the week, his younger sister helped congressional Democrats sell expanded funding for the State Children's Health Insurance Program. Yesterday, with the White House threatening again to veto the legislation, it was Graeme Frost's turn to take up the cause.

The 12-year-old Baltimore boy, whose family relied on the government-funded insurance program after he and his sister were severely injured in a 2004 car accident, came to Washington yesterday to record the Democrats' weekly radio address. "If it weren't for CHIP, I might not be here today," Graeme says in the address, to air today on stations across the country.

Popular with the states, the health insurance program, also known as SCHIP, covers 6.6 million children from modest-income families that are not poor enough to qualify for Medicaid. Congressional Democrats, with substantial Republican support, voted this week to cover 4 million more children, at an additional cost of $35 billion over five years.

President Bush, who says the measure expands the program beyond its original intent, plans to veto the bill. Forty-five House Republicans joined Democrats in the 265-159 vote to approve the expansion. Support fell short of the 290 votes needed to override a veto. The Senate vote was 67-29, with 18 Republicans supporting the bill.

Bush has proposed a $5 billion increase over a five-year period. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi described a "friendly conversation" with Bush yesterday in which she told the president she was praying that he would reconsider his veto. White House press secretary Dana Perino said Bush told Pelosi, "I'm going to veto this bill, and after that, let's see if we can sit down and come to a compromise."

Graeme, a seventh-grader at the Park School, has a message for the president. "If I could speak to him, I would say, 'You have to sign this bill,'" he told reporters yesterday during his first visit to the Capitol. "I'm guessing he wants this money for Iraq. Our future isn't in Iraq. It's here."

The blond, bespectacled youth rose at 6 a.m. in his family's home in the Butchers Hill neighborhood of Baltimore yesterday for the trip to Washington.

Earlier in the week, two staffers from the office of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid had called to ask Graeme about his health care experience.

Graeme and his 9-year-old sister, Gemma, were passengers in the family SUV in December 2004 when it hit a patch of black ice and slammed into a tree. Both were taken to a hospital with severe brain trauma. Graeme was in a coma for a week and still requires physical therapy.

Bonnie Frost works for a medical publishing firm; her husband, Halsey, is a woodworker. They are raising their four children on combined income of about $45,000 a year. Neither gets health insurance through work.

Having priced private insurance that would cost more than their mortgage - about $1,200 a month - they continue to rely on the government program. In Maryland, families that earn less than 300 percent of the federal poverty level - about $60,000 for a family of four - are eligible.

The Senate staffers wrote the script for Graeme. "My parents work hard and always make sure my sister and I have everything we need, but the hospital bills were huge," he says in the address. "We got the help we needed because we had health insurance for us through the CHIP program. But there are millions of kids out there who don't have CHIP, and they wouldn't get the care that my sister and I did if they got hurt."

Graeme said the recording in a studio at the Democratic National Committee headquarters "took quite a few takes." But Democratic staffers said he finished the job in fewer attempts than some senators. "One of the pleasures that the speaker and I have is, we submit who's going to give the radio address," Reid said. "And we decided that we wanted, this week, to have a real heavyweight."

Graeme's possibly unprecedented participation in the broadcast - Democratic aides said they didn't know of another time when a child delivered the radio address - continues his family's advocacy for the program. The Frosts came into contact with Pelosi's office through Families USA, an advocacy group that supports the expansion of CHIP.

On Tuesday, Pelosi introduced Bonnie and Gemma Frost at a Capitol Hill news conference. The family plans to join Gov. Martin O'Malley, House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer, Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin and others at a rally Monday in Annapolis.



NewsBusters.org Media Fail at Fact Checking on 12 Year Old Voice of SCHIP; Blogs Pick Up Slack

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/john-st...ogs-pick-slack

hhmmm....

__________________
Laissez les bon temps rouler! Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.** a 4 day work week & sex slaves ~ I say Tyt for PRESIDENT! Not to be taken internally, literally or seriously ....Suki ebaynni IS THAT BETTER ?