Well done, Mr. President
President Bush has vetoed the SCHIP legislation passed by Congress. Currently, SCHIP is a targeted program that provides health insurance for children of low income families. However, the legislation Bush just vetoed would expand the program by providing it to children in middle class familes. In the process, the legislation would increasingly substitute government programs and taxpayer dollars for private coverage and funding.
That, of course, is the Democrats' goal -- to develop a middle class health care entitlement program as a precursor to a government takeover of health care. In the process, though, the new SCHIP legislation would basically double the cost of covering an uninsured child. Moreover, as passed by Congress, the program will become financially unsustainable by 2013. The Dems set it up this way to make the program appear "revenue neutral" in the short-run.
UPDATE: When he vetoed the SCHIP expanaion expansion, President Bush said:
The policies of the government ought to be help poor children and to focus on poor children. And the policies of the government ought to be help people find private insurance, not federal coverage. … So I want to share with you why I vetoed the bill this morning. Poor kids, first. Secondly, I believe in private medicine, not the federal government running the health care system. I do want Republicans and Democrats to come together to support a bill that focuses on the poor children. I'm more than willing to work with members of both parties from both houses, and if they need a little more money in the bill to help us meet the objective of getting help for poor children, I'm more than willing to sit down with the leaders and find a way to do so.
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