Before she brought peace to Northern Ireland, created the Internet, and cured Polio, Hillary created the children's health insurance program (not)

In another example of Hillary's resume being a wee bit padded, it seems that Hillary didn't create the children's health insurance bill after all. In fact, her husband's White House was initially against the bill. But in all fairness to Hillary, I hear Barack Obama is black. From the Boston Globe:

[T]he Clinton White House, while supportive of the idea of expanding children's health, fought the first SCHIP effort, spearheaded by Senators Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, and Orrin G. Hatch, Republican of Utah, because of fears that it would derail a bigger budget bill. And several current and former lawmakers and staff said Hillary Clinton had no role in helping to write the congressional legislation, which grew out of a similar program approved in Massachusetts in 1996....

privately, some lawmakers and staff members are fuming over what they see as Clinton's exaggeration of her role in developing SCHIP, including her campaign ads claiming she "helped create" the program. The irritation has grown since Nov. 1, when Clinton - along with fellow senators and presidential candidates Barack Obama, Chris Dodd, and John McCain - missed a Senate vote to extend the SCHIP program, which was approved without the votes of those lawmakers.

Read More......

The Grinch who stole SCHIP

Courtesy of Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO). It's clever and funny:
Read More......

Senate passed Health Bill for children -- again. Bush prepares to screw over sick kids -- again.

They must be all excited at the Bush White House tonight. Bush gets to pull out his veto pen again. And, one more time, he gets to screw sick kids. The Senate passed the children's health insurance bill tonight:

The Senate passed a new bill Thursday expanding a popular children's health insurance program, despite the lingering threat of a veto from President Bush.

The bill -- which boosts the number of low-income children covered by the State Children's Health Insurance Program -- was recently passed by the House, but without the veto-proof margin it received in the Senate.

Bush vetoed the first SCHIP bill and is expected to veto this one.

"There's a bill moving through Congress that's disguised as a bill to help children, but I think it's really a trick on the American people," the president said Wednesday.

Oh, that Bush. He's such a joker. You know he's giddy about vetoing SCHIP again. Hey, they're just sick kids. What's the big deal? His kids have health care. Why is Bush supposed to worry about other people's children? Read More......

Bush's strategic failure on S-CHIP

The brilliant Amanda Terkel -- of ThinkProgress fame -- takes to the pages of the American Prospect to debunk the Republican spin over Bush's veto of S-CHIP, demonstrating the weakness of the veto in particular and the administration's agenda in general. Terkel incisively sifts through the self-congratulatory Bush administration rhetoric to get at the truth about the veto: It was the act of a weak, failing administration, an ever-lamer duck quacking feebly in an effort to remain relevant.

The current administration simply isn't accomplishing *anything* good, and it's not even accomplishing bad things it thinks are good. A president is supposed to work and compromise with Congress, even (perhaps especially) when it's controlled by the other party. S-CHIP is a stark example of a bipartisan effort being stymied by a petulant ideologue president, and despite Bush's gloating over his veto being sustained (which isn't especially surprising -- it's historically very rare for Congress to override), his success is only in briefly preventing the improvement of the country. Quite an accomplishment. As Terkel says,

Since when did the veto become an indicator of a president's strength? In reality, Bush is playing defense, forced to rely on vetoes and executive orders. The Democratic-led Congress has backed him into a corner, refusing to take up his policy priorities and instead sending him progressive bills he opposes. Congress passes bills, Bush swats them down.

The veto is actually a tool of last resort. As Rutgers University professor Ross K. Baker told the Associated Press, "It's the veto, and the veto alone, that is the last line of defense for a president whose administration's life is waning away." Bush did all he could to threaten lawmakers, but he was ultimately powerless from stopping 69 senators and 265 representatives from voting to expand S-CHIP.

This is a story of Democrats trying to do something good -- so common sense, so obvious, that dozens of Republicans joined the effort -- and a hugely unpopular administration blocking it. The failure to override the veto isn't a problem with Democrats, obviously, and Terkel explains,

The fact that the House was unable to override Bush's veto has no bearing on the chamber's Democratic leadership. Opponents of Bush's veto actually picked up eight extra votes from the original September roll call passing the bill. Forty-four Republicans broke rank and joined Democrats to vote for the override last week, whereas just two Democrats voted to sustain Bush's veto.

Bush has no agenda. He has no mandate. He has only the power to stop progress, and his joy in doing so should only be more motivation for Americans to replace him with someone better. Read More......

House Republicans uphold Bush's veto of SCHIP, vote to deny health coverage to millions of American kids

Final vote was 273 - 156 - i.e., 13 votes short of overriding Bush's veto. The Republicans stuck with Bush.

Read More......

Republicans freaking over children's health insurance veto

As well they should. Millions of children are in jeopardy because George Bush is a fool, and the Republican party has been taken over by people who no longer represent real Americans.

Here's the story of one kid that the Republicans are putting in jeopardy:
Read More......

The day the Republicans smeared a twelve year old boy

Krugman does a great job looking about how the Senate Republican leader joined right-wing bloggers and Rush Limbaugh in trying to smear a sick 12 year old boy.

Soon after the radio address, right-wing bloggers began insisting that the Frosts must be affluent because Graeme and his sister attend private schools (they’re on scholarship), because they have a house in a neighborhood where some houses are now expensive (the Frosts bought their house for $55,000 in 1990 when the neighborhood was rundown and considered dangerous) and because Mr. Frost owns a business (it was dissolved in 1999).

You might be tempted to say that bloggers make unfounded accusations all the time. But we’re not talking about some obscure fringe. The charge was led by Michelle Malkin, who according to Technorati has the most-trafficked right-wing blog on the Internet, and in addition to blogging has a nationally syndicated column, writes for National Review and is a frequent guest on Fox News.

The attack on Graeme’s family was also quickly picked up by Rush Limbaugh, who is so important a player in the right-wing universe that he has had multiple exclusive interviews with Vice President Dick Cheney.

And G.O.P. politicians were eager to join in the smear. The New York Times reported that Republicans in Congress “were gearing up to use Graeme as evidence that Democrats have overexpanded the health program to include families wealthy enough to afford private insurance” but had “backed off” as the case fell apart.

In fact, however, Republicans had already made their first move: an e-mail message from the office of Mitch McConnell, the Senate minority leader, sent to reporters and obtained by the Web site Think Progress, repeated the smears against the Frosts and asked: “Could the Dems really have done that bad of a job vetting this family?”

And the attempt to spin the media worked, to some extent: despite reporting that has thoroughly debunked the smears, a CNN report yesterday suggested that the Democrats had made “a tactical error in holding up Graeme as their poster child,” and closely echoed the language of the e-mail from Mr. McConnell’s office.

Read More......

Republican Senate Leader MItch McConnell's office led attack on 12 year old

This says almost everything you need to know about Republicans. Major hat tip to Think Progress for exposing the heartless, sick, callous bastards.:

ThinkProgress has obtained an email that congressional sources tell us was sent to reporters by Sen. McConnell’s communications director Don Stewart.

On Monday morning, Don Stewart sent an email with the following text to reporters:

Seen the latest blogswarm? Apparently, there’s more to the story on the kid (Graeme Frost) that did the Dems’ radio response on SCHIP. Bloggers have done a little digging and turned up that the Dad owns his own business (and the building it’s in), seems to have some commercial rental income and Graeme and a sister go to a private school that, according to its website, costs about $20k a year ‹for each kid‹ despite the news profiles reporting a family income of only $45k for the Frosts. Could the Dems really have done that bad of a job vetting this family?

In the email, Stewart attacks Democrats for allegedly doing a bad job “vetting this family.” That effort to blame Democrats for the smear campaign seems to have swayed some reporters, as CNN this morning claimed that the real story is that “the Democrats didn’t do as much of a vetting as they could have done.”

The New York Times reported yesterday that “an aide” to Sen. McConnell “expressed relief that his office had not issued a press release criticizing the Frosts.” No, what the McConnell staffer did was worse — he used the power and privilege of the Senate office to secretly propagate a baseless smear campaign against a 12-year old boy and his family simply because they disagreed on policy.

And, let's be clear. McConnell's staffer is the voice and the conscience of his boss. This is what the GOP leadership office spends time on -- bashing sickly 12 year olds. Well, the GOP leader is also doing everything he can to stay the course in Iraq, too.

One other thing: Someone in McConnell's office basically lied to the NY Times. When the communications director is sending text messages to reporters, it's hard to understand how the unnamed "aide" to McConnell can claim "relief" over their non-involvement. The Times reporter got duped. So, why would any reporter trust McConnell's office? But, then again, the entire Washington press corps has simply regurgitated the lies of Bush and his GOP allies for years. Read More......

Republicans smear 12 year old boy

They've just tried to kill a program providing health care to millions of children, bt that wasn't enough. Now they're smearing a 12 year old boy who spoke out about how the SCHIP program helped him and his family. It's one thing for the Republicans to play these cute smear games with John Kerry or MoveOn. Still despicable, but at least they're adults. But going after 12 year old boys? More from ThinkProgress. Read More......

Following Bush, GOP Presidential Candidates hate kids, too

George Bush makes decisions for the GOP. And, he's got the Republican candidates following right behind him -- even on the really stupid political decisions. Giuliani, Thompson, McCain and Romney think Bush was right to veto health care for kids:

The four leading Republican presidential candidates have aligned themselves with President Bush’s veto on Wednesday of an expanded health insurance program for children, once again testing the political risk of appearing in lock step with a president who has low approval ratings and some critics of the veto within their party.

It is yet another issue — like the Iraq war, North Korea’s nuclear program and the management of the federal response to Hurricane Katrina — where the Republican contenders are treading delicately as they gauge how to position themselves with an unpopular president on contentious issues. While all four are defending the veto, some in full-throated language, the candidates are at the same time forgoing praise of Mr. Bush’s judgment on the issue or of his leadership in general.

Doesn't matter what the GOP candidates say about Bush's judgment or leadership. Their actions show their fealty to Bush. Read More......

Bush cuts tens of thousands of children out of health insurance program

If you agree that children should be cut off from health insurance, then please do vote Republican. Bush was opposed to this program from the start. He tried to kill its reauthorization. And now he's trying to dismantle it for tens of thousands of kids. Welcome to the Republican party. Read More......

Bush threatens to veto health care coverage for kids and seniors, but think Bush, Cheney or Roberts had any problems with their health insurance?

Over the past two weeks, three of the top officials in our government have undergone major medical experiences. Bush had a colonoscopy and polyps removed; Cheney got some kind of new cardiac device; and John Roberts had a seizure that landed him in the E.R.

If those experiences had happened to most Americans, we'd be sorting through our health care plans to figure out what was covered and how much we owed. That is, if there was health insurance coverage. Meanwhile, I don't think Roberts is fretting that he had a pre-existing condition or whether E.R. visits are in his plan. The rest of us are tortured over things like that.

You know that none of those guys have any such worries. You're paying for them to have the best health care around. Yet, George Bush is vowing to veto the SCHIP reauthorization. This week, the House will pass its version of SCHIP reauthorization, the Children’s Health and Medicare Protection Act (CHAMP), H.R. 3162. That bill will provide health care to 11 million kids while protecting senior citizens from the Bush effort to privatize Medicare. Yep, health care for kids and seniors. But, Bush can't have that.

Bush's veto threat really is a new low even for him. It's not a surprise that he's choosing the insurance companies and tobacco industry over the American people. But the Democrats are ready for this fight. Earlier today, I was at a Maria Leavey Breakfast with Speaker Pelosi who discussed this very issue. PoliticsTV has the audio. The Speaker is geared up. On this one, she is ready to get in the ring with Bush saying, "Okay, here's the fight....[Bush] is going to fight us on the tobacco tax and children's health. Welcome to the discussion....this will be a defining kind of debate for us."

A defining debate -- and it has got to be just the start of real reform. The health care system has to change. It works for Bush, Cheney, Roberts and the rest of the government officials, but not for most of us. Read More......

A Top House Repub. on Dems: "They can send their members home crowing about their accomplishments"

The Democrats are on the verge of passing several pieces of legislation that have been long needed. Today's Washington Post asks the key question:

But against such philosophical stands, there is a stark political problem: How many Republicans are really going to oppose legislation expanding insurance coverage for children, tightening ethics rules and bolstering homeland security?

Never, ever underestimate the capacity of Congressional Republicans to stand in the way of progress. But, the Democratic success of late have even been noticed by House Republicans:

"They've had a pretty strong quarter," said Rep. Ray LaHood (R-Ill.), who praised the insurance bill as "creative" and suggested the homeland security bill would pass overwhelmingly. "The first quarter was not so good, and that's why they're not looking so good in the polls, but this quarter is looking very good for them. They can send their members home crowing about their accomplishments, and they've done it in a bipartisan way, which is exactly what they promised to do," LaHood said.

That's some pretty strong praise from a leading House Republican. Don't worry, though, the Republican leaders are gearing up to fight any legislation that helps kids get health insurance:

House Republican Conference Chairman Adam H. Putnam (R-Fla.) conceded that his party has its public relations work cut out for it, battling what he called "the underlying warm and fuzzies" of the bills' titles -- especially the Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act. But he said Republicans would be able to make the case that a multibillion-dollar expansion of a government-funded program runs counter to taxpayers' wishes.

That's more like it. Putnam always comes through with just what we expect from Republicans. Read More......