Guest Blogged by Alan Breslauer
Marian Wright Edelman appeared on Democracy Now today to discuss legislation supported by Democrats and Republicans in both houses, along with 91% of the American people, to extend health coverage to nine million uninsured children. Amy Goodman points out that the expansion of the so-called “S-CHIP program” to cover more children even enjoys “tepid” support from pharma and insurance groups.
Yet, while Americans overwhelmingly want to protect the most vulnerable among us, at least one person fervently disagrees:
That’s what they call compassionate conservatism. Also, the “huge tax increase for the American people” is an outright lie. The $35 billion needed to fund the program would come from a $0.61 tax on cigarettes. And only about 47 million Americans smoke. Further, the tax itself is beneficial to society as the increased price of cigarettes will cause more smokers to quit which will result in reduced health care costs and lower taxes in the future.
And let’s not forget that this is the second time Bush has sided with Big Tobacco over the health and well-being of American children. It was only two years ago when the US Department of Justice suddenly and unilaterally slashed a legal settlement with Big Tobacco by $120 billion. That money was supposed to be used to educate children about the dangers of smoking.
It is with this backdrop that the great Marion Wright Edelman of the Children’s Defense Fund justifiably says George W. Bush “doesn’t know what he is talking about,” is “uninformed,” “not believable,” “out of touch,” and spouts “hollow words.” Edelman also wonders what will become of our democracy if Bush gets his way. “Can we stand up for children? If we can’t stand up for children and for children’s health, we don’t stand for anything in this nation.”
Get rid of bushie’s daddy then.
H. Res. 333 (Kucinich) needs a few more co-sponsors. It would be better if it was a bi-partisan resolution.
Conyers indicated he would move it along if it received 17 co-sponsors. It had 14 at last check.
That brings up Representative Ron Paul (R-TX). He has indicated his favor of the concept. He is also working with Representative Kucinich (D-OH) on ending the Iraq debacle.
There are a lot of Ron Paul supporters who read this blog, so give him a call and tell him about the House Resolution 333 to impeach VP Cheney.
Even one republican senator has used the “i” word.
Bi-partisan justice, its not just for England anymore.
What is stunning to me is conservatives who seem to think that they have some sort of “choice” whether to pay for health care for those who can not. It’s crazy. As a nurse, I can tell you right here, you either pay when it s cheaper and far more effective (much of a person’s eventual health can be traced back to adequate food and medical services as a child) or later, when it will cost exponentially more and do less. If you support a kid, they can become a healthy member of the tax paying base, a good societal investment. If you don’t, they will statistically become one of those taking huge amounts of care for diminishing returns later in life and you will have even less of a tax base to draw from. And of course, infectious disease doesn’t care if you are rich or poor, republican or democrat or citizen. If you don’t take care of that when its small, IT WILL come back and take out huge swatches of the population with it. A cursory glance at medical history will tell you that.
SO compassionate conservatives, will you spend a little good money for the common man now, or bucket-fulls of money later when it won’t do much good and you are just trying to stave off the sinking of the ship a few more moments? That’s your option. Not if to pay or not, but when and how much. Choose.
Dredd,
Besides Ron Paul do you have a list of other potential supports that would be good to focus on?
I would choose cigarettes over children! I actually DO choose cigarettes over children. It’s really annoying to have to make sure they are out of the way when I smoke. Having children in this world, even in this country, the way things are, is radically more irresponsible than smoking. I could go on for days with reasons why * should be summarily yanked from the White House and impaled on the dock at The Hague, but if people do not stop the health nazism long enough to get to it, it will never happen.
Cigarette smokers might be the only ones left with the juice to get it done! We’ve already been made to pay enough in taxes to provide health insurance for the whole damn country for the next hundred years. The money gets parsed out to local governments to give to whoever lobbies hardest for it, or has the best connections.
FIGURE OUT SOMETHING ELSE TO TAX FOR DAMN ONCE!
Mrs Edelman, thank you.