Neither your White House war criminal, his "administration," or the
Republican "Party" can ever claim the title "THE CHILDREN'S ADVOCATE."

Expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) to
millions of uninsured kids has the support of Congress, but the
Nincompooop-in-Chief is going to veto it if it reaches his desk
because:

1)   Neither Bushie or the Repubs like the funding source -- increased
taxes on CIGARETTES!  Our legal killers of choice!

2)   Bushie, thinking like an ashtray again, believes expanding the
program will fuel "socialized medicine" because poor people will look
to government rather than private (business-based, expensive) medical
programs.

Of course, Chimpy, the Great Divider, and a "compassionate
conservative" if we ever saw one, is looking out for his lobbyist
friends who fight tooth-and-nail to keep U.S. medical and prescription
drug costs by far the highest in the world!

And any retarded chimpanzee can recognize that UNINSURED POOR PEOPLE
can't afford the cost of medical coverage in this country -- so THEIR
government is their only hope.

------------------
"Children's Health Bill Approved By House"

"Insurance Expansion Near Senate Passage But Faces Veto Threat"

By Jonathan Weisman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, August 2, 2007; A01

The House yesterday approved legislation vastly expanding a federal
health insurance program for the children of the working poor,
shrugging off a fresh veto threat from President Bush and the fierce
opposition of House Republicans.

The Senate, where the legislation has strong bipartisan support, is
expected to follow suit as early as today, voting on a more modest
version of the program and probably setting up a showdown between
congressional supporters and the White House, which says the measures
are far too expansive.

The legislation would launch the most significant growth in federal
health care in a decade, and Democrats hope it will fortify their
members as they head home soon for the summer recess amid voter
perceptions that they have accomplished little since taking control of
Congress.

"This is the children's hour," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.)
declared last night. "We are able to meet our moral obligation to our
children."

The 225 to 204 vote in the House -- largely along party lines -- came
after hours of delaying tactics, strident rhetoric and trench warfare
from Republicans who called the bill the first step toward "socialized
medicine," financed by an unfair tobacco tax increase and cuts for
managed-care companies in Medicare.

But in the end, the Democrats had weapons that were just too powerful
-- a promise to insure 5 million more children who otherwise would
have no access to health care, adding to the 6 million children
already covered -- and the backing of Republican and Democratic
governors, the American Medical Association, AARP, the March of Dimes,
the Catholic Health Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics,
and even cyclist Lance Armstrong. And the prospects are good in the
Senate, where a key Republican, Orrin G. Hatch (Utah), said, "It's
difficult for me to understand how anyone wouldn't want to do this."

But Bush opposes such a major expansion of the program. In an
interview with The Washington Post last month, he said, "When you
expand eligibility . . . you're really beginning to open up an avenue
for people to switch from private insurance to the government."

The House bill would enlarge the State Children's Health Insurance
Program, or SCHIP, by $47 billion over five years to provide coverage
to the additional 5 million children.

Those children would have access to dental and mental health care. And
the bill would offer new options for states to extend Medicaid and
SCHIP coverage up to age 20 and to cover some legal immigrants and
pregnant women. It would expand coverage for preventive health
screening for seniors under Medicare and would provide $19 billion
over five years to prevent scheduled cuts to physician reimbursements
under Medicare. Nearly $3 billion is included for rural health care.

To pay for itself, the bill would raise the federal tobacco tax by 45
cents a pack, while making federal payments to managed-care plans
under Medicare equal to reimbursements for the federally managed
Medicare program.

The bill, which last month appeared to be politically unassailable,
stirred a pitched battle on the House floor. Democrats charged that
Republicans were fighting to deny health care to children, using scare
tactics and false charges to mask their true intentions. Republicans
accused Democrats of pushing nationalized health care while accusing
them of slashing Medicare and imperiling seniors.

"Folks, that's the bottom line: It's government-paid health care,"
Rep. J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) said in a rare speech since he lost
the House speakership in the Democratic takeover. "It's a bad bill for
a bad time, and it's coming under the false pretenses of trying to do
something for children."

House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio), pointing to the cuts
for Medicare managed-care plans, dashed off a letter to AARP, calling
for the powerful seniors lobby to retract its endorsement and halt its
full-throttle campaign for the bill's passage.

But John Rother, AARP's policy director, responded that funding for
Medicare physician reimbursements and free medical screenings more
than makes up for any difficulties managed-care companies might face
when they get the same reimbursement rates as the core Medicare
program.

The Senate measure, a $35 billion expansion of the program over five
years, would continue coverage for about 1 million children who might
otherwise be dropped and add 3 million youngsters.

By forgoing the physician reimbursement issue and rural health-care
funding, senators could pay for its bill with a 61-cent increase in
the federal tobacco tax while avoiding any Medicare cuts. That has
given the Senate bill broad, bipartisan support, but House Democratic
leaders say the advocacy of Hatch and several other conservatives will
give their members ample political cover when negotiators try to
reconcile the House and Senate versions.

Hatch and Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) said yesterday that the
House-Senate negotiations will aim to keep the final measure within
the scope of the Senate bill, in hopes of avoiding a veto.

"Personally, I believe if we can get enough votes, the president
doesn't want to veto this," Hatch said.

House Republican leaders believe they have turned the issue against
the Democrats. Earlier this week, Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.), the
House Democratic Caucus chairman, huddled with his caucus behind
closed doors to soothe frayed nerves. His tool was an advertisement
that Rep. Chet Edwards (D-Tex.) depended on to win reelection in 2004,
when an unprecedented redistricting in his state had made his
electorate strongly Republican.

"I don't want welfare. I just want to get insurance for my child,"
Jenny Jones, 28, said in the advertisement, after explaining that her
husband had been killed two years before in a house fire, leaving her
3-year-old daughter, Bailey, dependent on the Children's Health
Insurance Program. "Look at my little girl, look into her eyes and
tell her she's not good enough to be taken care of."

Of the half-dozen Democrats targeted by Republican-controlled
redistricting in Texas, only Edwards survived. "What trumps everything
is 11 million children with health care and the AARP endorsement,"
Emanuel said.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/01/AR2007080100266.html