AlterNet: Does Bush Hate Kids?

[marmar]

Does Bush Hate Kids?

By Scott Thill, AlterNet. Posted October 17, 2007.


Bush has a socialized health plan, yet he is against offering one to low-income kids. Find out why and how you can help overturn his veto of a children's health insurance bill.


As people across the country are mobilizing and pressuring Congress to overturn President Bush's veto of SCHIP, the program that provides health insurance for low-income children, many are scratching their heads as to why Bush is against the program at all.

Presidents might veto legislation that is costly, ill conceived, or ineffective, but in this case, most people agree that SCHIP is a very successful program. And therein lies the problem.

"The reason that Bush is so opposed to SCHIP is the same reason he was so determined to privatize Social Security, which is that they're both programs that work," said economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman in a recent BuzzFlash interview. "You have to understand, that is the point of view of somebody who really wants to undo the New Deal -- and if possible ... get things back to the way they were before Teddy Roosevelt and the 'Socialists' came in.

"The worst thing is a government program that actually does help people," Krugman continued. "So the SCHIP is a really bad thing, from Bush's point of view, because it works so well. It might lead people to say, well, if we can do this for lower-income children, why can't we do it for lots of other people who need guaranteed health care? So it's the determination, on his part, to do this veto, even though there's a short-term political cost, because they're deathly afraid that people will look at SCHIP and say, gee, actually the government can do some good."

The battle of SCHIP is really a battle about the role of government. Despite large numbers of Americans who support government-funded programs to keep people healthy, like Medicare, Medicaid and SCHIP, Bush represents a radical anti-government position that demonstrates how a narrow number of lawmakers -- little more than a third of Congress voted against SCHIP -- are willing to deny other families the same level of quality, government-financed health care that Congress, the military, most federal agencies, and even the President himself, enjoy.

In the run up to his veto, and in the days since, Bush has continually preyed upon people's fears of socialized medicine, saying that SCHIP is a slippery slope toward universal, government-sponsored health care. ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/healthwellness/65312/

[Demeter]

1. Bush Hates Most People