Earl Blumenauer: “the vote to override President Bush's veto of SCHIP marks the culmination of the most disingenuous and deliberately…”

“the vote to override President Bush's veto of SCHIP marks the culmination of the most disingenuous and deliberately misleading debate I have witnessed in my entire political career. The partisan talking points from the Bush White House have been disputed not only by the independent experts, but by dozens of sensible Republicans like Senator Grassley, Senator Roberts and Senator Hatch. The facts are simple: working families are having great difficulty providing their children with health insurance. This is not a program about poor kids, most of whom are already eligible for State Medicaid programs. SCHIP provides health care to children of working families who make too much to receive welfare, but can't afford private insurance. Everyone I talk to back home agrees that this is a problem government needs to address and that children of struggling working families shouldn't pay the price for Republican politics. The President and his Republican defenders say that SCHIP shouldn't go to families who earn $83,000 a year. Well, as Republican Senator Grassley points out, this is why the bill doesn't authorize coverage at that income level. The White House now opposes the bipartisan bill because it provides coverage for adults. Yet, over the last 6 years, the administration has cheerfully approved numerous waivers to allow States that have requested to extend coverage to some adults; for example, to pregnant women.”