GOP To Poor Kids: Better Not Get Sick

AP:

House Democrats failed Thursday to override President Bush's veto of their pre-election year effort to expand a popular government health insurance program to cover 10 million children.

The bill had bipartisan support but the 273-156 roll call was 13 votes short of the two-thirds majority supporters needed to enact the bill into law despite Bush's objections. The bill had passed the Senate with a bigger than two-thirds majority.

Read the whole story: AP

Comments

[RDixon]

And the fools wonder why the Democratic led Congress has the lowest approval rating of any Congress since the great depression.

Way to be losers Dems.

Piss off 22 million VOTING smokers as well as the 25 million or so gun owners.

Add to that your stupid stance that it is perfectly ok for a girl as young as 12 to get an abortion without parental consent and you have what we have had for ages.
Republican victories and Democrat losses.

The great Democrat revolution of 2006 didn't take long to fizzle out, did it?

I will most likely be voting Republican next year.

The lesser of the two evils...

[LaFeminazi]

"I will most likely be voting Republican next year."

You don't say, but first you will have to come down from the trees.

[BreadandRoses]

But he's having such fun swinging by his tail.

[rwe]

as opposed to those voting libdumb nation crawling out of the cesspools

[tkearney609]

This latest bill HR 976, in my opinion is poorly constructed. I have read most of the details within the bill, and I think it is ridiculous that the Democrats and Republicans who worked together on this bill had the nerve to send this to the President.
The fact that Democrats want to expand the coverage under SCHIP is just fine with me. But, there method and strategy to me does not make sense. I personally support the tax increase on cigarrettes to help fund the bill. I think anyone who smokes is an idiot, and raising the price of cigarrettes will not affect me one way or the other. The fact that within the current bill you will see that there are actually adults covered under SCHIP - that is unacceptable. This is a bill for kids, and should stay that way. The stone cold fact is that our healthcare system is not changing anytime soon. We are going to maintain a private system. The insurance companies have too lobbying power, and our congressmen are not going to ruffle feathers and burn bridges within the free market. So, I kind of support President Bush's stance that he wants to maintain a private healthcare market. Honestly, if we are going to maintain a private insurance industry, then why would Congress bother to send a proposal to the President that will give people already insured with private insurers the opportunity to dump that coverage and sign up for federal coverage? Also, I am against illegal immigrants any opportunity to receive health coverage in this country. In the bill, it states that there are rules and regulations that prevent illegal immigrants access to coverage. But, read further and it says that the only requirement for coverage is a Social Security number. How easy is that to obtain illegally? In my opinion I think every child should be covered, but I am not in favor of a blank check when it comes to placing a dollar amount on how to extend SCHIP to cover these children.

[LaFeminazi]

I don't think that is why Bush pulled out the veto crayon.

They are already drawing up the same bill without the loopholes.

Bush will veto it again because its not what he wants.

[levibatgirl]

And it makes him feel "relevant".

[rwe]

Pres Bush has said he will sign , but Nancy knows that she will look even worse than her 11% if she appears to put through a good piece of legislation. Amazing that the responses to any diverse opinion here are rabid , obscenity laced, ignorant rants with no intelligence , fact or logic. Actually it is not amazing

[getoffmedz]

The Bush/Cheney swine herd and the Obstructionist Fake Republican Party are killing our once great country. For profit!

No one contacts their elected officials about the obvious mess these criminals are causing.

WHY?

Because good Americans are AFRAID to participate in the affairs of their own country.

Just wait until your kids are drafted up, sent off to some fucking shithole to die their remains too contaminated to retrieve?

It'll be too late, then.

The time to take these criminals infesting our White House out of power is NOW!

Get involved! Write, call, FAX and email everyone in authority and let them know the direction taken by our country since 2000 is wrong and unacceptable!

DO IT NOW!

[LIR]

Once again, the Dems fail to do what we voted them in to do. We couldn't have expected anything less than the Repigs hating kids...lov­e the fetus, hate the child!

[Firaxis]

Uninformed liberal. The bill was a blatant attempt to add upper middle class children and adults to the program.

[LaFeminazi]

Upper middle class?

What do you earn?

[BushHague]

Fuhrerasslicker you miserable stupid fascist, even most repugs think this was a good bill. And one month of your fearless leader's clusterfuck of a war would pay for it. Why do you think both the Senate and House voted for it overwhelmingly? Why do you think famous liberals like Sens. Grassley and Hatch helped push it through? Oh thats right. You don't think.

"The latest CBS News poll, released on Wednesday, found overwhelming support for expansion of the program to include some middle-class uninsured children.

Eighty-one percent of respondents, including 70 percent of Republicans, supported expanding the program. Three-quarters of those who supported expansion said they would be willing to pay higher taxes to finance it. The poll was conducted nationally by telephone Oct. 12-16 with 1,282 adults, and had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points."

You're obviously so fucking stupid and sick that you're now in the 24% of the 24%'ers. The turd at the bottom of the cesspool so to speak.

Doesn't your chronic stupidity ever embarrass you?

[BUSHLICKER07]

Please get off the Repug medication! You really need to use that pea brain of yours and THINK!

[MamaBird62]

No family of four in New York making $80K (the upper reach of this program) is "upper middle class." After housing and taxes (among the highest in the nation), you are lucky to have cash for groceries and shoes. If your employer doesn't offer health coverage you're screwed. Also, families at that level pay premiums to be in the SCHIP program; it's not free. As for adding adults to the program, 87% of the adults on this program are pregnant women. Guess that has something to do with children but I'm just guessing. Sorry to burden you with facts, but there they are.

[stargazer13]

A Nation Can Be Judged by how they take care of their elders and there young

Guess we are found wanting

Go figure

[Firaxis]

It's not the government's job. It's the parents job.

[levibatgirl]

Wake up you stupid parrot.

[scooperss]

and if the parents can't the kids should be what? Left to die? What's your answer? What are kids supposed to do in your little mind?

[BreadandRoses]

You're sick, Fixaflat---sick in your mind, sick in your soul (if you have one.)

IF the parents cannot afford helath insurance for their children, it is the moral duty of society---in the form of government---to help those people.

The fact that you don't see this---in fact you believe the exact opposite---shows exactly how cold, cruel, and heartless you really are.

You deserve to have your last years lived in penury, without friend or family and no one to help you in any way.

It's called Karma, and it's real.

[BillN]

Our kids and their families should have a healthcare option available to them AT LEAST as good as Congress has. The taxpayer is already funding THEIR plan. Having a commercial­ly-availab­le healthcare "option" that most working class families can't possibly afford on their own, is no option at all.

Explain please how you can justify government-provided healthcare for Congressmen and Senators making six figures a year, while leaving working class families to fend for themselves in a catastrophic illness situation.

Before you explain, please tell us what you think would happen to your own personal financial situation should you suffer a brain aneurysm in the next five minutes that completely debilitates you, and you now require long-term care for the rest of your life. I'm sure an upper-class wannabe like yourself has long-term care insurance, right?

Let's not forget.. your hero in the White House eliminated any possibility of your declaring personal bankruptcy.

You think that because you support the republican party and their talking points, that you're exempt.

I'm here to tell you that you're not.

[JamesR.]

Euthanasia next! There goes the Fox News crowd.

[LaFeminazi]

Florida certainly.

[thegreatgiginthesky]

In our never ending quest to attain greater and greater levels of wealth we have forgotten the old and the young. No other nation in the world treats its elderly people with such disdain.

[Iluvbush3]

Look no SS black shirts, teach those kids how to lock and load.

[Marmann]

It's time for an attitude adjustment here in the USA.

I hate to steal one of Michael Moore's arguments, but if any of us calls a cop, ambulance or fire department, we can basically expect the same service. It's a service that's provided to all.

All Americans play the capitalism "game." Those who can afford it purchase the Bentleys, Benzes and Beemers. Those who can't are still driving their 1989 GEO Metros. Those who can purchase lobster and filet mignon. Those who can't are occasionally reduced to buying Ramen to feed their families. Those who can live in mansions. Those who can't live in low-rent districts.

There exists the largest dichotomy between rich and poor these days than I can ever remember, and the middle class is evaporating right before our eyes. We continue to play the capitalism "game" when it doesn't truly impact on our ability to survive -- what we drive, what we eat and where we live, as long as we have our basic human needs met and drive something (some people don't drive anything), eat something and live somewhere.

That "game" should be off limits when it concerns one's ability live or die, and the fact that it is all about profit and capitalism is the most immoral thing about America.

Healthcare for all shouldn't be a commodity. It should be a basic human right in America in order for all Americans to be on equal footing when they pursue their individual "life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.­"

[RegularFolk]

You already have every right to healthcare.

[Marmann]

WRONG. I earn less than $20,000 a year. My "employer-provided" health insurance recently rose to $711 a month, and the policy had very high copays and deductibles.

Before canceling my policy, I called around to get quotes from different companies. After being healthy for most of my adult life, I suddenly developed pancreatitis 1-1/2 years ago at age 53. As soon as Blue Cross heard the word pancreatitis, I was told there was no way they would agree to insure me, and furthermore, I wouldn't find anyone to insure me because I reside in a state that is allowed to discriminate.

Between the end of July and beginning of September, I was hospitalized for a total of 19 days. Less than a month ago, without any prior warning, I received a letter informing me that I have been diagnosed with cystic fibrosis (causing my chronic pancreatitis), found on DNA testing that was done without any counseling or my prior knowledge.

I've now got what is described as an "always fatal disease" and can only research DNA testing/cystic fibrosis/p­ancreatiti­s on the internet because I don't have the money to see the specialist I was advised to see.

The bills from my hospitalizations are astronomical, and if I worked 24 hours a day, every day, for the rest of my life, I'd never be able to pay them. I'm getting sicker every day and can't even work as much I used to. I can't pay those bills, so SOMEBODY is going to have to pay them.

Since I was 16 years old, I have always worked at least 2 or 3 jobs. I was a single mom and always had health insurance. I NEVER expected nor requested anything from the system. Now I'm a drain on society, and there is nothing I can do about it.

So how DO you prefer to pay for my frequent hospitalizations (because you already are)? I WANT the government to raise my taxes so I can also participate in my own healthcare cost and retain some sense of pride.

[sdskelton03]

That's great. While we are at it let's take all the profit motivation out of developing new drugs. I am sure big pharma will continue to produce new life-saving drugs anyway. Let's take all the profit motivation out developing better tests for earlier detection of disease. I am sure research labs will continue thier groundbreaking work anyway.

We need more capatilism in our health care system, not less!!

BTW, does Michael Moore travel to Cuba when he gets sick, or does he go to a hospital here?

[LaFeminazi]

Why do the same drugs in the US cost three times as much as anywhere else?

Someone is being ripped off.

[scooperss]

The drug industry gets it's own corporate welfare. Hello!!! Anybody home?

[JamesR.]

Did you know half of all pahrmaceutical drugs in pharmacies here are produced in China genius? No? Canada drugs BAD. Chinese drugs GOOD. LOL Wow you empty heads are uninformed. Turn off Fox Noise and get yourself educated. Or go hang in Freeperville with the rest of the imbeciles.

[BreadandRoses]

Once again, you reveal your lack of humanity and your lack of intelligence.

We need a national, single-payer, not-for-profit health insurance system that covers every person in America without exception.

The US is the only major industrialized nation on earth that doesn't guarantee its citizens healthcare.

It's an embarrassment.

But then, so are you.

[hannitizer]

I wish Bush would contract a rare form of some deadly disease which takes years of slow agonizing pain to finally take its course. He deserves to suffer continuously for all the pain and anguish he has wraught upon the people of the world. I despise every bone in his body with an intensity hard to describe. He is the son-of-a-bitch who vetoed the bill in the first place. And to all of the Reps that upheld his veto, your time will come.

[realitytrumpsbull]

How many of these SCHIP lobbyists are either
compensated by, or have shares in, publicly
traded HMO's? What's the Real Story, here?

[JamesR.]

The real story is lower middle class "working" parents can't afford health care for their kids. It's a "morals" thing. You won't ever "get it" unless you turn off Rush and get deprogrammed.

[LaFeminazi]

Is that the same as jamming their radio between their ears?

[Firaxis]

They should turn in their Beemers for VWs and buy insurance for their kids.

This bill was a blatant attempt to add upper middle class children and adults into the program.

[dr4Will]

publish everyone of these right wing cowards and attack their vote in their home districts--we are nothing when party comes before what is right!!!

[SunshineDaydream]

more like corporate over citizen

[askmeificare]

Bush's veto on the expansion of government control stands until he expands the program next week.

[BillN]

Yeah - with an Iraq War funding rider attached.

"If the Democrats don't vote for this, then they must be against our children, and against our troops."

I can hear it now.

Of course, the Dems in Congress will cave, and go for it. Gotta keep those kids healthy so we can put them all in a uniform!

[askmeificare]

No, really. Bush is expanding this program by 5 billion (I may be incorrect on the amount).

Bush is is growing the program, but just not as fast as the dems like.

And keep in mind that this is NOT health care, it is health insurance. More corporate welfare.

[Beelzebul]

Republicans are against abortion because they enjoy watching very young children die a slow, lingering death.

Abortion - Bad.

No child healthcare - Good.

[LaFeminazi]

Now I know why I hate this new republican breed.

The hypocrisy just flows continuously.

One piece of legislation for the common good they throw a hissy fit.

I hope it changes in 09.

[Beelzebul]

Repubs are against any funding for prenatal health care, and against abortion.

Figure that one out.

[Jane22]

I hold out hope that we can re-educate these willfully, ignorant ones! All of these have FEAR as their Base inside their souls. See: www.illumin.com We can heal with more than medicine. Peace

[thegreatgiginthesky]

You have better luck educating a fence post. These people live in constant fear, fear of communism, fear of terrorist, fear of what their government tells them to fear. Everything revolves around fear. Fortunately we see the younger generation trending away from this bullshit.

[scooperss]

All you who voted for Rep. Meeks should be proud. He's doing a good job on c-span right now.

[Doug]

If all of you can tell me how you will pay your $500,000 share of the 57 trillion debt (85% of which is from social programs like Medicare and Social Security), then I might change my mind on the issue.

Until then, take care of your own children.

[scooperss]

You tell me why taxpayers are paying for exxon and their ilk to gouge us for oil. Why are soldiers fighting and dying so exxon can screw their families?

[Doug]

Do you think Exxon has 57 Trillion dollars?

How will you pay your $500,000 share of the national debt?