Bush Legacy Tour

With Recession Looming, Bush’s Allies in Congress Talk Big Game About Need for “Economic Stimulus,” Then Vote to Deny 4 Million Struggling American Families the Best Kind: Healthcare for Their Kids

Washington D.C. – Americans United for Change, a leading partner in the multi-million dollar Campaign to Save Children’s Healthcare, called Bush’s allies in Congress to the carpet today for voting to sustain the President’s veto of healthcare for 4 million more American kids in need. The vote came on the heels of grim forecasts from several leading economists including former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan of a full blown economic recession in 2008 – an ailing economy that has already seen rising unemployment, rising food prices, rising healthcare costs, a mortgage crisis, record high heating oil prices, the largest increase in inflation in 17 years, gas prices hovering around $3 a gallon, a weak dollar, a $167 billion budget deficit, and a $9.2 trillion national debt.

On December 12th, President Bush vetoed the latest version of the Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act -- hugely popular, widely bipartisan legislation which was revised in response to the President’s first veto of the bill and included strengthened language to address any and all concerns about undocumented immigrants, adults and children from high-income families benefiting from the program. Sadly, even with these concerns effectively taken off the table, Bush’s allies in Congress still chose today to once again stand with President Bush over the thousands of parents in their district that go to bed every night praying their children don’t get sick or hurt in this struggling economy.

“Bush’s allies in Congress are absolutely shameless,” said Jeremy Funk, of Americans United for Change. “With a full blown recession on the horizon, it’s laughable to hear Republicans talk about the need for ‘economic stimulus’ and then turn around and reject healthcare for 4 million kids from struggling middle class working families. There is no better ‘economic stimulus’ they could have offered for the millions of parents who have to ask themselves every time their kids get sick: “Is it bad enough to see a doctor?””

“There’s no better example of just how out of touch this President and his loyalists in Congress have gotten with the every day struggles of working families in this country,” continued Funk. “Republican after Republican lined up on the floor of Congress today to claim that a family of four making a whopping 3 times the poverty level -- or about $62,000 a year – should easily be able to afford a private insurance plan. That’s absurd, especially in the face of this disastrous Bush economy. Out of excuses, we heard Republicans argue that 95 percent of families under 200 percent of the poverty level should be covered first before worrying about others – which is simply an impossible ask according to the state officials.”

“No, we’re not talking about undocumented immigrants – we’re not talking about adults and children from high-income families. We’re talking about kids whose parents work hard but can’t afford private insurance and are not disadvantaged enough to qualify for Medicaid. These are regular families that may soon have to choose between putting food on the table and paying the bills – forget paying for an expensive private insurance plan. If only these Republicans would have come home and held town halls throughout their districts, they could have heard directly from constituents how high on the hog they’re living at three times the poverty level.”

“It’s question of priorities, and Bush’s allies have theirs all mixed up. They have no problem voting again and again to give President Bush a blank check to police an endless civil in Iraq, yet at the time, they adamantly opposes spending a fraction of that to provide healthcare to 4 million more kids in need. The fact is, for what we spend in just one week in Iraq, 800,000 children could get health insurance for an entire year.”

“We understand healthcare is not a concern for these Republicans’ families – they’ve got the best healthcare plan taxpayer money can buy. Perhaps they would of voted differently today if they looked in the mirror and asked themselves one question: “What if it was my own kid’s healthcare at stake?”