It shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone but BushCo is having trouble keeping his story straight. This time on SCHIP. This was the official line after the veto of the bi-partisan, compromise bill which would have brought health care to 10 million children:
White House spokesman Tony Fratto rejected the comparison with the State Children's Health Insurance Program, saying Bush wants only to make sure it focuses on poorer children and the vetoed bill would have covered families with too much income. "The president has said that the policy is wrong," Fratto said. "He didn't say that it's too expensive."
Now that the Dems have put together another compromise bill that more strongly caps eligibility at 300% of poverty and punishes "illegals" by making application for the program more difficult for everyone, this is the official BushCo line:
The White House showed some movement yesterday. Leavitt said the president is willing to relax his opposition to covering children between twice and three times the poverty level if states meet a "rigorous standard" demonstrating that they have done all they can to enroll more lower-income children.
But a gulf remains over the program's cost. "We're prepared to meet on policy. But if we find common ground on policy, we have to see changes as well in the budget number," he said.
It's the principle not the money! It's the money not the principle! They're evil and stupid. At some point the Dems are going to have to wage war on this issue. Although scheduling the House vote for today shows that they may be getting cranky, they haven't reached a breaking point yet. They're still comfortable with vilifying immigrants and putting the hurt on the middle class in order to get something passed, but if this compromise can't get past another veto then they will have to start telling the truth:
SCHIP has been compromised nearly to death and immigrants and the middle class are being scapegoated on the alter of for-profit health care. There is no more room to move on SCHIP and this entire spectacle has made it clear how far the for-profit people are willing to go to make sure that Americans are denied the free, universal access to top quality health care they deserve by virtue of their participation in and contribution to the richest economy on the face of the planet. We need universal, single-payer health care now.
Actually, I'd put off the reauthorization of SCHIP for another few weeks if the Dems had the will, courage and brains to make to that point.
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