Presidential veto will save children, save lives
Phoenix, AZ—“President Ronald Reagan once quipped that the nine most terrifying words in the English language are ‘I'm from the government and I'm here to help’,” said Randy Pullen, chairman of the Arizona Republican Party. “It’s never been more terrifying than lately with what Democrats are trying to do with children’s health care in America.”
Pullen’s remarks followed President Bush’s veto of H.R. 976, the Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2007, or SCHIP, which sunset earlier this year. Democrats rewrote the legislation to move children from private insurance coverage to government coverage by shifting the program’s emphasis from low-income families who can’t afford insurance to families earning almost $83,000 per year.
“Under the Democrats, this has become a program to buy votes from the middle class instead of a legitimate program to provide health coverage for low income families who can’t afford health coverage,” Pullen said. “President Bush’s veto today will force Congress to focus on those who have no coverage, those children who have no insurance, those kids for whom a serious illness might mean bankruptcy for their families, or losing their house or a parent losing their job.
“While President Bush is working to get honest health coverage to American kids who need it, Democrats are just playing political games with the election year right around the corner,” Pullen warned. “The victims here are easy to see because low income children should have gotten a health insurance bill today, but instead they will have to wait until this joke of a Democrat Congress gets serious about doing serious work.”
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