Thursday, January 24, 2008

SCHIP Override Fails Again

The second House vote to override Bush's veto of the SCHIP bill failed yesterday.  Sadly, 42 Republicans sided with the Democrats' attempt to take the first step toward universal health care.  Minority Leader John Boehner's statement:

"After two failures to override the President's vetoes of their flawed SCHIP bill, I hope congressional Democrats finally end the political games that have dominated this debate and work with Republicans to focus on low-income children first. The Majority's bill would shortchange low-income children and expand SCHIP coverage to illegal immigrants, adults, and those who already have private health insurance. This is particularly irresponsible at a time when our economy is slowing down and American families are feeling the strain from rising costs of living.

"Democrats and Republicans alike established SCHIP a decade ago to ensure our nation's low-income children have access to high-quality health care. Likewise, just a month ago, both parties overwhelmingly voted to extend SCHIP into 2009 and cover the program's funding shortfall. Unfortunately, that spirit of cooperation has consistently taken a back seat to the Majority's ongoing efforts to politicize this issue in order to move more Americans from private insurance to government-run health care. As we have been for the past year, Republicans are ready to work in a bipartisan way to reauthorize SCHIP and keep its focus on low-income children. After this latest failed attempt to enact its flawed legislation, I hope the Majority is finally ready to do the same."

These Democrats (and their spineless, spend-happy, government-control-loving Republican enablers!) need to get over this version of SCHIP and actually get something done that will help the people that are supposed to be helped by this bill!

I'm sure this won't be the last attempt at a bloated SCHIP...but we'll be watching.

There's my two cents.

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