Children Health Insurance Lies

Perhaps Washington Post’s most partisan hack writer, Eugene Robinson, who is either the most stupid person on the face of the Earth, the most free of common sense, or the biggest liar on the planet, has written a bit of projection this Friday entitled Bush’s Veto Lies;

Bush’s veto Wednesday of a bipartisan bill reauthorizing the State Children’s Health Insurance Program was infuriatingly bad policy. An estimated 9 million children in this country are not covered by health insurance — a circumstance that should shock the consciences of every American. Democrats and Republicans worked together to craft an expansion of an existing state-run program that would have provided coverage for about 4 million children who currently don’t have it.

It was one of those art-of-the-possible compromises designed to advance the ball toward what has become a national goal.

First of all, Eugene, there might be nine million children without health insurance, per se, but all nine million of those children have government-provided health care through medicaid. And if Democrats wanted to “advance the ball” as you put it, why does the Washington Examiner today report that Democrats aren’t in the mood for compromise with the White House?

Bush, who vetoed the bill on Wednesday, told a Pennsylvania crowd he is willing to increase his funding proposal for the program if it will lead to a deal with Congress.

But both House and Senate Democrats insisted there is no room for compromise.

House Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., called Bush’s overture “an insult” and said he is a president out of touch with reality who used his “macho pen” to hurt children.

“If he thinks he can waltz in here, with his secretary of Health and Human Services, and sweet-talk us, he can’t. We’re not going to compromise. If he’s hoping for that, he’d better hope for something else,” Reid said.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said, “We have compromised all we can compromise,” but then added, “We’re always willing to talk.”

Seems to me that the President has been willing to compromise since the beginning of this discussion, but the Democrats froze House Republicans and the White House out of the negotiations. The only reason the Senates Republicans were asked to participate was because of the 60% needed to pass legislation in the Senate these days.

In fact, the President said he’d have signed the bill if Democrats had made CHIP available to children who live in households with an annual income of 200% of the poverty line – but the Democrats intentionally made the goal for families with an annual income of 300% (about $60,000) of the poverty line. I’m pretty sure a family with $40-60,000 of annual income can afford their own health insurance without the government. So Democrats let it fail because they’re trying to hand out entitlements to the wealthiest Americans – how’s that feel Eugene?

Well, Eugene Robinson – disingenuous person that he is, says the people between $40-60,000 “fall into a perilous gap”;

The program Congress voted to expand provides health insurance for children who fall into a perilous gap: Their families make too much money to qualify for Medicaid but don’t make enough to afford health insurance. 

How can they not afford health insurance when the family is making more money than I have most of my life – and I always had insurance for my kids. I considered it part of my responsibility as a parent. In fact, I made sure they had health insurance until they were 21. Maybe the problem isn’t President Bush – maybe it’s the Democrats (and Eugene Robinson’s) fault for making it seem as if it’s Government’s responsibility to provide healthcare instead of parents.

Robinson repeats this idea throughout the piece;

Health care is arguably the biggest domestic issue in the presidential contest and, while the candidates and the country may be all over the map in terms of comprehensive solutions, there’s a pretty broad consensus that some way has to be found to ensure that children, at least, are covered.

The only candidates talking about it, at any length are the Democrats – but I understand Robinson’s failure to admit that, as I’m sure this supposed journalist is only listening to the Democrats and those are the only candidates this journalist will accept as “his president”.

And more ignorance from partisan hack Robinson;

The president said Congress was trying to “federalize health care,” even though the program in question is run by the states.

The why is the federal government paying for it? The Federal government doesn’t just hand over money to the States without strings attached, or haven’t you read even a page of Title 21 (Public Health) of the Code of Federal Regulations which contains 9 volumes of text in regard to state-run programs.

And so what if 72% of Americans were “for” the program according to the Washington Post survey – how many understood what was in the bill and what was in dispute? Do you think I trust the Washington Post to honestly survey Americans? Has that ever happened?

More Robinson drivel;

Bush seems to be upset that Congress didn’t adopt his pet idea to tackle the health insurance issue through — guess what? — tax breaks. None of the major players on Capitol Hill thought this would work.

Um, Eugene, no one “on Capitol Hill” thought any of his other tax cuts would increase revenues and stabilize a failing (Clinton) economy – but they did. To ask anyone in Congress to approve of a tax cut or a tax break is like asking a crack addict to go cold turkey. Or haven’t you lived in Washington DC long enough to know that? You have, but you’re not honest enough to tell the truth, are you?

The actual truth is; the Democrats need an emotional issue to take the focus off of their dreary record of national defense – and this is the one they’ve chosen.

Category: Economy, Media, Politics, Society