When you're stuck down at 30% approval and down to your last 18 months in office, an administration really has to pick and choose its battles. Only real matters of principle are worth a fight. And the Bush administration has found one -- resisting state efforts to expand the Children's Health Insurance Program to more middle income families.
Never has this Cheney/Bush/Rove Administration so obviously twirled its mustache. It's like a silent movie landlord -- "I can't pay the rent!" "You must pay the rent!" -- or a live action Snidely Whiplash. The opening grafs in the NY Times article tell the tale:
The Bush administration, continuing its fight to stop states from expanding the popular Children’s Health Insurance Program, has adopted new standards that would make it much more difficult for New York, California and others to extend coverage to children in middle-income families.
Administration officials outlined the new standards in a letter sent to state health officials on Friday evening, in the middle of a monthlong Congressional recess. In interviews, they said the changes were intended to return the Children’s Health Insurance Program to its original focus on low-income children and to make sure the program did not become a substitute for private health coverage.
That's it right there. Point-blank admission. They are screwing over America in order to protect the hateful private health insurance business, the one that Michael Moore revealed as a monstrously terrible alternative to national health insurance. Moore showed how Republican President Richard Nixon and his top aide, John Ehlichman, birthed our current corrupt for-profit health insurance industry.
However, I can't pin this on all Republicans. These sons of bitches are even frustrating the wishes of their own Party's governors and Congresspeople
The Children’s Health Insurance Program has strong support from governors of both parties, including Republicans like Arnold Schwarzenegger of California, Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota and Sonny Perdue of Georgia. When the Senate passed a bill to expand the program this month, 18 Republican senators voted for it, in defiance of a veto threat from Mr. Bush. The House passed a more expansive bill and will try to work out differences with the Senate when Congress reconvenes next month.
To be honest with ourselves, there do have to be Republicans who come across on national health insurance. Screw this nonsense that it leads to an inevitable slide to Socialism, or that anything Socialized is somehow bad for America. But of course, the Republicans in D.C. today are the committed descendants of the Republicans who wanted to destroy Social Security, the largest and most successful social program in the history of our country, from the very beginning, when Franklin Delano Roosevelt guided it into existence.
Roosevelt labeled them for what they still are today: Plutocrats. And he wasn't afraid to take them down:
"Powerful influences strive today to restore that kind of [plutocratic] government with its doctrine that that Government is best which is most indifferent to mankind....
"We['ve] had to struggle with the old enemies of peace--business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering.
"They had begun to consider the Government of the United States as a mere appendage of their own affairs. We know now that Government by organized money is just as dangerous as government by organized mob.
"Never before in all our history have these forces been so united against one candidate as they stand today. They are unanimous in their hatred for me--and I welcome their hatred."
He welcomed their hatred. Nice. And his description of the enemy, tell me it couldn't have been written today.
One of the linchpins of Bill Clinton's success as President was expanding social services from the poor to the middle class, creating greater comfort and prosperity. They call that Socialism. They fear it, because it makes people look favorably on government, and then government can provide services that don't allow them to profit themselves. Or exploit, for their own financial an plutocratic gain.
That's why the Bush/Cheney tax cuts were so important. That's why GOP tax cut madman Grover Norquist wants to weaken our Federal government enough to "drown it in the bathtub." That's why they don't give a shit about who's put in charge of FEMA.
Who's children are they trying to force into the private pool:
The poverty level for a family of four is set by the federal government at $20,650 in annual income. Many states have received federal permission to cover children with family incomes exceeding twice the poverty level — $41,300 for a family of four. In New York, which covers children up to 250 percent of the poverty level, the Legislature has passed a bill that would raise the limit to 400 percent— $82,600 for a family of four — but the change is subject to federal approval.
They don't want families of four making $20,000 to $80,000 a year getting public health insurance for their children. We all know how far $20,000, even $80,000 goes these days. That's like food, clothing, cable. That's not exactly benefiting from huge capital gains tax cuts. Who at $20,000 a year is covering his family under an awesome private plan?
So good, George. Make yourself and the GOP the child killers.
You deserve it.
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