Today, the “moms” are blogging about health care.
When I found out this was our common topic for the day, my response to Lawyer Mama, who had this idea, was “Hell, yeah!”
But as I sit down to write this, believe it or not, I’m at a loss. Because I really don’t understand how we can have a president who decides he’d rather spend hundreds of billions of dollars to continue a war that is now just a fool’s errand rather than divert just a fraction of that money to make sure that all children in America have good health care.
In his “let them eat cake” moment, President Bush recently announced that there is no health care crisis for children in this country because, after all, if kids don’t have health insurance, they can just go to the emergency room, right?
While Bush’s veto of the increased funding for the SCHIP program, the health care safety net for children who are too “rich” for Medicare and to poor to afford private health insurance, was a fait accompli, it still boggles my mind.
If Bush is supposed to be the No Child Left Behind president, I’m just not sure how he sleeps at night knowing that there are over four million children in his country who can’t see their own family doctor when they get strep or the flu or break a bone because he denied them.
And Laura, where are you in all of this? As a mother, you’re just letting him get away with this? Not that it’s likely to happen, but would you be OK if your eventual grandchildren were allowed to slip through the cracks the way so many children in this country are? No need to answer.
I thought about quoting facts and figures about why this is outrageous. But on this one, it’s really not necessary. Because this is just a question of human decency.
Our only hope is a veto override. At the moment, the numbers aren’t there. So I say it’s time to use the shame factor.
If you have a Congressman or Senator who is going to side with the President, now is the time to make that call or write that letter or send that E-mail letting them know that if they want a job in 2009, they’d better think again.
Cross-posted from DC Metro Moms.
October 4th, 2007 at 2:28 pm
The whole thing just makes me sad.
October 4th, 2007 at 2:33 pm
I just don’t understand how Bush can deny unfortunate children proper health care, and yet spend $1,000,000,000 a week or more to sucure the oil in Iraq for his friends.
Sure happy ro say I NEVER voted for him.
October 4th, 2007 at 3:22 pm
I readily acknowledge my personal bias on this one – as both a “kennedy democrat” and a former administrator of a pediatrics department – but I wholeheartedly believe the GOP just surrendered another 10 seats in Congress just because of this vote. The Republicans have just missed the political significance of this obvious disconnect and it will cost them dearly. It’s really a signature moment in this Congress.
I’m not even trying to address this on the merits. It’s just such an obvious disconnect and it’s going to resonate with people.
October 6th, 2007 at 12:31 am
How else would you expect him -and others like him -to believe health care is not a problem when they are of the elite in this country who have never had to worry about how to pay for a roof over their head, utilities, transportation costs, food, clothing and also have even 5 cents left over to put towards health care?
Why on earth would any politician give a rip about health insurance for openers when they don’t have to fork out one red cent from their own pockets to pay towards their own health insurance? It just becomes more and more obvious to me that the people running the country have no clue as to what life is like in the “real world” at all.