Republicans Sustain Bush's S-CHIP Veto
The House [debated] the override of the President’s veto of the revised bipartisan SCHIP (State Children’s Health Insurance Program) bill. The President’s veto on December 12 denied health care to children of hardworking families across America just as the country began experiencing an economic downturn, with families increasingly struggling with the costs of heat, food, gas and health care.
Unfortunately, the House Republicans sustained Bush's veto, by narrowly denying the two-thirds necessary to override the veto: 260 in favor of passage versus 152 against, despite the veto-proof margin in the Senate, meaning 42 Republicans voted with the Democrats. Rep. Charlie Rangel:
“I stand in support of overriding the President’s veto, not for the reasons given by Chairman Dingell — that it’s the right and moral position — because that has existed all of the time and yet we’ve been unsuccessful. But I would say to the gentleman from Texas that since the last time this has come up, the President has admitted we are going toward a recession and that economy may be jeopardized unless the Congress supported a stimulus package. It would just seem to me that if it’s recognized that our states are going to go into deficit, our governors are going to have serious problems, and that it is very possible if not likely that services for our kids will be further cut under Medicaid, it would seem to me that a legitimate argument could be made that by providing care for these 11 million children it allows the parents to know that they’ll be able to be more productive knowing that their kids are covered by health insurance. It’s sad that the poor now have to be used merely as a vehicle to stimulate our economy but had we taken care of these people… perhaps we’d be not going through this struggle. So it occurs to me that this is another opportunity that the minority would have, not just to do the moral thing but to do the economic thing, and to be of some assistance to the governors who are screaming out for the continuation of this program, indeed the expansion of it.”
Research shows most of todays kids don't know what health insurance is.
It figures. Give billions for the war in Iraq, but leave our children in poverty and misery. Christ, sometimes I don't even know why I get up in the morning. Only 364 days left. Can't be soon enough!
So, now can we get back to working on more tax breaks for the top 1%?
Republics are truly loathsome creeps....
They are going to send checks to everyone to stimulate the economy but they can't fund this bill? Shame on them.
This is rich. The Republicans are against abortions, but won't give children the health care they need. It appears as if they prefer to see babies get sick and die. Even I'm not that cold-blooded!
Republicans are scum.
Well, they did fund the $649 billion for defense.
Could be out of lenders.
All Hail the Mighty Dollar!!!!!!!!!
A full-blown, prolonged recession in America is now inescapable, with the rest of the world set to be dragged into a severe global slowdown despite yesterday's emergency US interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve, leading economists said in Davos this morning.
A darkening outlook for the global economy looked set to dominate the week-long World Economic Forum, as plunging stock markets and the Fed's drastic and dramatic reaction overshadowed the opening of the annual gathering of political and business leaders.
Some of the world's most prominent economic pundits told an opening session this morning that the Fed's surprise three-quarter-point cut in US official interest rates was already "too little, too late" to stave off recession in America.
Now don't go cutting funds for tanning beds cause bonner would fight that till his dying breath,all these clowns flunked clown school.
I wish the Dems would quit using the word "we" when something doesn't get done. The repugs never use the term "we" when it happens they always blame the democratic party.
The Democratic party needs to learn to fight on the same terms as the repugs. There is a reason why the repugs have been in charge all these years and its not because they were being bipartisan.
These people in the Democratic party need to learn to fight and take it to the repugs. They need to take those famous words that the repugs use " compromise is like date rape" in this case i have to agree with the repugs on that.
Dems need to fight and quit giving into the repugs. They dont want compromise.
152 assholes beat 260? Only in America. I have absolutely no respect for Republicans.
War YES! Healthy Kids NO!!!
i figured after the first of the new year the repigs would start backing off of supporting bushes bum policys , but if they didnt that they knew for certain the fix was in for the 08 election, well i guess it is they really arent worried about getting re- elected, thier will not be a victory for us gaining any seats in congress or the senate !!!!!
That idiot Steve King from Iowa said this was a "victory" for children and taxpayers. http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080123/OPI... I do not think that word means what he thinks it means.
He's a coward and on his House.gov website he only accepts form emails from constituents in his district (the rest of us can go to hell). But if you want to send him a direct email to tell him how you feel about his comments, a simple google search reveals his business email as: steve.king@mail.house.gov Feel free to tell him how you feel (I did).
Hopeless, impotent Democratic congress.
This shows that we need a Democrat in the WH for the weak Dems in Congress to pass this and other bills.
I'm outraged. Anyone voting against health care for children should be ousted out of office. Furthermore, we ought to cover every American. I'm tired of hearing of people who put off medical care because they can't afford it, or are broke from paying medical bills. Even insured people are being squeezed with higher premiums, co-pays and deductibles. Why is it that the repubs won't initiate family-friendly policies like Europe has. Longer paid maternity and paternity leaves, a living wage, health care, quality, affordable day care and the right to care for a sick child without worrying about losing your job. Instead, their policies are anti-family and pro-abortion (women must balance the effect of another child on the children she already has). We need national health care, including dental care, for everyone now.
Fuck BUSH
no more deals
Chuck, please occasionally clear your throat, you sound like a garbage disposal with glass in it. Oh yeah, I almost forgot! Dump every republican and every republican in democrat's clothing possible in the 2008 election! We can have Leiberman tarred and feathered afterward, don't you worry! Please, no Hillary? Couldn't we just have an ejection seat set up in the Oval office? A mandatory, certified and independantly monitored election (based on popular majority) could vote confidence/or not after the first year and every 6 months after that. Then the ejection seat sendsor doesn't send the unpopular president into the upper atmosphere, well the parts that made it through the white house anyway. Is that a "popular dictatorship" or some sort of responsible civil audit? Hell I can dream still right?
That idiot Steve King from Iowa said this was a “victory” for children and taxpayers. http://www.desmoinesregister.c.....36/Opinion I do not think that word means what he thinks it means.
Oh gawd...I went to the link, and read some of the comments, and King's district has some real Christianist yahoos preaching the "Supply Side" Gospel out there......
How these guys can twist "the least amongst you" into "the nanny state" is purely advanced Rush Limbaugh dementia at work.
You know what the definition of insane is right?
That is basically what the BS we call a political system is like.
At least they're flushing all the money they can down the War Department.
My math shows that it was 63% for override. Do they have to have 2/3 of the total House members, or just 2/3 of those who vote yay or nay?
And of course whatever the issue, for Bush it's never about that, it's always about him having to be RIGHT. it's his way or oblivion. he's intransigent and recklessly stubborn. it's pathological with him, it has to be at this point. what a petulant brat. his way, or nothing. that isn't leadership, it's just Bush. and he's a Republican. they are to blame for him being President, for nominating for one and the sheeple they were able to fool into voting for him.
"42 Republicans voted with the Democrats."
We've lost a few along the way:
360 - 45 passage in Feb 2007 (showing the real vote, without the veto support)
273 - 156 failed veto override in Oct 2007
(2 Dem nays -- Blue Dogs Marshall and Taylor)
(44 R with Dems)
265 - 142 revised bill passage in Oct 2007
(43 R with Dems)
260 - 152 failed veto override in Jan 2007 (today)
(1 Dem nay -- Marshall; Taylor voted to override)
(42 R with Dems)
As for Taylor and Marshall, both Blue Dogs:
"In February 2007, along with Gene Taylor from Mississippi, [Marshall] was one of two Democrats to vote against H CON RES 63, which expressed opposition to a troop surge in the Iraq War."
How many of us will someday think about migrating to Canada because of the how our country has screwed up the healthcare thing?
raker @ 14:
You're blaming the wrong people (see above)
Repuglicans are the true enemy of the nation or should I say the bottom 99% of the nation. I'm still amazed at the lunacy that afflicts their supporters, who would rather see themselves screwed than see someone from a group they hate saved.
Well, at least the dems are not wasting valuable legislative time with impeachment. Now on to passing a real tough-on-terror FISA bill. Hoorah!
How bout we wrap our minds around this: You can vote but nowhere are you guaranteed that there will be an honest count or recording of our vote. I believe the people voted out the republicans in '06,overwhelming ,a veto proof majority in congress was elected but we just couldn't have that now could we. Think of that the next time you are asked to vote on a blackbox republican voting machine. Now what ?
So how is that "reaching out for bipartisan consensus", to get support from the Repubs on exaclty this kind of legislation, working out for the Dem leadership? Proving weakness and being ignored out of complete lack of respect is their reward.
Working much better than negotiating through strength, is it? Hmm? /sarcasm
I have had enough of these losers.
This was defeated in Oregon BY THE VOTERS, they should tell everyone something about were America wants to go with health care....
chris @ 30:
What was defeated in Oregon?
Oregon has an SCHIP program.
Otay @ 29:
Yes, see, you just ignore the Republicans, and they evaporate. So easy!
SCHIP already passed -- twice. Veto overrides require 2/3 of the body. You explain to us all how you get 2/3 without some bipartisan support. New math?
Why doesn't anyone put the truth out on this issue already-- President Bush was fully ready to sign into law the schip program with a 5 billion dollar increase. It was when the dems wanted to bump it up to a bloated 35 billion dollar increase to cover 23 year old "children" that Bush said NO WAY-- give him credit for fiscal responsibility here. Poor children already get coverage- Universal health care FAILS in every county around the world. This should have never passed and I'm glad it didn't.
LoveToFish @ 33:
I'm not casting aspersions on your honesty, but can you provide a link to your assertions? Where was SCHIP expanded to include 23 year olds?
And I'm going to assume that your statement that "Universal health care" failing in every country can be proven as well? Because I'm willing to bet you've never left this country. I have lived abroad and I've lived in countries that do have universal health insurance and I PROMISE you that I can be back in 5 minutes with more proof that is does work than you would be able to read.
Paul in LA @ 32:
No. Negotiate from strength. The situation is, the Repubs know now that they can win every battle against the Dems, so they are fighting every battle. They can then point out how weak the Dems are.
But I am NOT criticizing the fine Dem congresscritters here, who voted for override, but rather the Dem leadership who has set up the Dem congress for failure through their weak actions in the past.
You see, the Dems could have played hardball, and set up the Repugs for major face loss here. But the leadership haven't the faintest clue how to play.
Here is the truth about schip:
http://www.texasmonthly.com/blogs/burkablog/2007/10/bush-vetoes-schip-bi...
everything is verifiable and it's in one nice tidy article. It galls me to see the dems wanted to cover families that make over 85K a year. I make over 85 K a year and I DON"T want universal heath care.
I'll look up facts about the failing of UH in other countries-- all I have is anecdotal evidence now-- things like waiting months for an mri, long lines (does the dmv make you shiver?) etc etc.
Keep one thing in mind, please-- universal heath care is not a right and unfortunately it's a finite resource. I have been out of the country and I work in health care, I know what I'm talking about.
VOTE FOR MORE DEMOCRATs in November.
I hope when the election rolls around that Republicans (that aren't rich) remember how their representatives stuck by the president and don't reinstate the republicans up for reelection.
Get rid of the Dem leadership. Only then will more Dems help. Until then, the Senate will need 60 votes to do anything.
These numbers show impeachment of Dick and George will not be an easy fight.
Paul in LA @ 31:
Correction, the expansion of this program, written into the state constitution and paid for by smokers. People do not want this program on the whole...
#36 - LovetoFish
Where do you get your healthcare from exactly? Show me how a working family of 2 can AFFORD independantly-paid-for healthcare and not be scraping by month-to-month... $600/month for a family on top of a mortgage, food, gas, clothing for the kids, school expenses... you are not living in the real America I'm afraid, because the real America I know does not let you AFFORD health insurnace on $85K/year... Plus, you are trying to equate a very small minority of potential families (a few thousand is the number I'm hearing who could be at that level) who could use the benefit with the Millions (35?) of families who NEED this help because they earn 1/2 of that $85K level or less.
Here, read this for a better insight into the lie being perpetuated about heathcare being afordable for the middle class:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/1/23/131222/601/621/441792
and... think it's better for us "rich middle class" families now?
http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/general/2003-09-14-middle-cover_x.htm
Heartless RePIGlican BASTARDS.
*
JohnnyBravo @ 11:
Perhaps we could appeal to the Repukes to overide because if these kids die they will have no one to fight their wars.Appealing to Rethugs on moral grounds is pointless.
LoveToFish @ 36:
Interesting...I worked in healthcare before I retired and the stats I have read say that the U.S. ranks near the bottom
of industrialized nations when it comes to healthcare quality. If you read about the costs, the U.S. ranks near the top.
The report gave stats on infant mortality rates, emergency room wait times, etcetera. It was just in the news recently also.
I'm sure you could Google it. It is a surprising revelation that I am sure the insurance agencies are working hard to suppress or discredit.
Here's a link for those truly interested:
http://faculty.washington.edu/ely/Report2000.html
LoveToFish @ 33:
Out of 30 industrialized nations, 29 had universal health care 1 didn't. The US (the only exception) according to the New England journal of medicine, placed 28th in quality of service among those 30 nations. Even though on a per capita basis, the US of A spent twice as much as the nearest country in the ranking in medical costs per person.
So if those universal health care systems are failing and they manage to score higher in quality of care and most of those countries had a longer life expectancy (another metric to gauge the health of a nation) than the US of A... then that means our beloved system is double failing.
The cognitive dissonance of the right is truly deafening, no wonder we are the country which pays double as much in order to get less life expectancy and lower quality of medicine than most other industrialized nations in the world. But as long as there are idiots willing to pay top dollar to get shitty service and be glad they have such privilege, what are we normal thinking people to do...
LoveToFish @ 36:
... and you must be one them pro-life compassionate conservatives we heard so much about for the past decade, eh?
LoveToFish @ 36:
Health care should be a right. We're the only industrialized nation who doesn't think so. What does that tell you? And I don't understand what you mean by it being a finite resource. Are we going to run out of bandages some day and then no one can go to the doctor?
Your article made no mention of 23 year old "children" receiving care through SCHIP. And it only said *SOME* families making *UP TO* $85K *MAY* qualify. There's an awful lot of weasel words. What are the circumstances that a family would qualify? The article doesn't specify.
What is true is that we spend more per capita on healthcare and have worse outcomes, lower life expectancy and higher infant mortality. Our system frankly doesn't work.
The anecdotal stuff you cite are the stuff that the right wants you to believe. You do have to wait for less urgent care issues, but when I lived in Europe, I walked into clinics, was seen reasonably soon (and certainly faster than I've been seen at an American ER) and never suffered from long lines or poor service.
The thing I don't think you realize is that we have the infrastructure in place now for Universal Health Care. It's not the big socialism bogeyman that you appear to make it. We offer it to seniors and to veterans. They can opt to enhance their coverage with private insurance, but they can manage with what is being offered by the government. What's so scary about expanding that so that no person need fear loss of their home in the event of a catastrophic illness or accident?
Poor deluded, misguided Charlie Rangel. Doesn't he know that everything in this world has a purpose? There is a fine balance to things that shouldn't be dirupted.
The purpose of repugs is to be rich and steal money from government. That way they can be rich, happy and ignore everyone's suffering. The purpose of poor children in the world is so they can die cold and hungry of an otherwise easily cured infection. That way the repugs can be rich, happy and will have suffering to ignore. It's like the lion and the gazelle. Each has their part in the circle of life.
If repugs gave even a little money to save dying children, there would be that much less money for them to be rich, and a lot less suffering for them to ignore. Then what would happen? Then there would be no purpose to life and the whole world would end.
Now I hope he understands how important it is that those poor kids suffer and die.
chris @ 41:
That's bullcrap. The SCHIP program enjoys a huge acceptance around the country, and the FOUR MILLION poor kids who get health care as a result, and their parents, sure do want the program. The 117,000 children in Oregon who otherwise don't have health care sure do.
Stingy pseudo-conservatives and their pathetically narrow minds notwithstanding. And, btw, that state initiative using a tobacco tax was from your Republican Senator (Gordon Smith).
LoveToFish @ 36:
Why you liar.
The ONE STATE (New York) that PETITIONED to offer an 85K limit (400% of poverty) was turned down by the Secretary of Health. No such payouts were ever approved, they aren't in the bill AND NEVER WERE.
NY State was NOT offering 400% except as a BUY IN, in other words, with a co-pay by the parents. The reason why NY wanted that was as a transition for a small group of children so their health care would not be interrupted because of the vagaries of their state's waiting period. It's moot -- they applied -- were rejected, and Dems clarified the bill to make the limits more obvious, so the Secretary of Health isn't required to address such requests in future.
Love the stingy lies.
I'm starting to think that there need to be some form of revolution of some sort.... This almost seem like france.. when there were 3 classes, and the lowest one gotten stiffed.
Pawsie @ 54:
SEEMS LIKE!?!? Dude, it is EXACTLY LIKE. You have the governing class/megga wealthy. You have the professional class who can make some nice money but have nearly no chance in hell of ever making it into the class above. Then you have the rest of the country, basically cannon fodder and laborers. These people's children might be able to climb one wrung on the ladder, but the chances of two are impossible. You can say there is a fourth class, those that are illegal. They take the lowest of the jobs at the lowest of the wages and can't enjoy any of the meager benefits of nation they build along side the rest of us.
The MSM has completely programmed people to HATE the idea of class warfare, but that is exactly what is needed in this country. Class warfare != Communism. Class warfare != Socialism. Class warfare = the people of this country getting their fucking country back from the bastards who stole it from us.
The face of conservative compassion.
I wonder how many Dems voted to uphold the veto.
Quite frankly, I don't care what other "industrialized" nations do with their healthcare or anything else for that matter. There is a reason the US is the greatest country the earth has ever see-because we do things differently and because we do things right.
I agree it's awful if someone has no healthcare and they get sick. Being poor is awful and there should be some safety net for people who fall on hard times, But...
If you take your argument and extend it out- why should poor people have crappy unsafe cars? Why don't we all pitch in and buy them a lexus or acura, why should the poor have to live in unsafe housing developements-- we should all pitch in and buy them wonderful homes - maybe even with a pool. Do you see how silly that is????
Lets extend it out even further---what about all the poor people/children in other countries-- lets raise our taxes and pay THEIR healthcare too-- lets just pay for the world- you're right, that doesn't make sense.
You say Healthcare should be a right--I disagree. In THIS country-- our founding fathers wanted small government-- they wanted the people to pursue their OWN happiness without government rules and regulations. Then wanted people to work for themselves---they didn't want a nanny state where all the n'er do wells stay on the dole.
With all do respect, Nicole--if europe was so great, why did you come back here?
just a thought
This is the reason they need to take Impeachment off the table. They are never going to accomplish any real legislation with this ignorant bastard in the white house so why not spend the time doing the hearings?
This is the reason we really need to re-look at the people we now have in our Congress and get some new Democratic blood in there, after we kick the hell out of the ass holes on the right.
We aught to be so tired of this kind of crap.
Re Comment 58 LoveToFish Says:
It almost seemed like you had a honest thought between those ears (Wrong, but possibly honest)... but then you go and drag out the Idiot Jingo, Arrogantly Ignorant, Ugly 'Merican crap.
"There is a reason the US is the greatest country the earth has ever see-because we do things differently and because we do things right" ???
WTF? Where does someone get such Self-Inflating, Delusional, Nonsensical, Xenophobic, Socially Misanthropic Crap?
If you are not insanely wealthy, then you are the epitome of the sucker who swallowed that Ayn Randian myth of the individual horsehockey.
Who is this "We" you speak of? Maybe you and the nastiest, most heartless, slime-ball of a President this country ever had... RayGun?
Seen the economy lately? We're about to go the way of the Romans...
You're an idiot. No offense.
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