Richardson Speaks Out On SCHIPS

Bill Richardson is joining with governors from several other states to take President Bush to court over the SCHIPS program. He is asking for the support of ordinary Americans like you and me. Please e-mail or call your congressman. Here is what Richardson has to say:

Last Tuesday, I joined 28 other Governors, from both parties, in signing a letter to President George W. Bush, urging him to sign the bill extending the popular children's health care program known as SCHIP.

SCHIP funds basic health care for over 6 million of America's children in all 50 states -- mostly children from poor families with little or no access to other health services.

Checkups for poor children sounds like a no-brainer, doesn't it? It's a proven fact that children with early access to immunizations and regular checkups do better throughout their lives. And in fact, 72% of Americans in a recent poll said they supported SCHIP.

But last week, President Bush got our letter ... and he threw it in the trash.

He vetoed the SCHIP reauthorization bill the very next day, and he tried to use his veto to make a political point. Congressional supporters are now trying to line up the votes for an override next Thursday.

This wasn't a surprise. The President has been openly hostile to children's health care. New SCHIP regulations that his Administration issued in August violate the intent of Congress, interfering with the states' existing SCHIP programs and limiting their expansion.

And now we're joining forces with New York, Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey, Washington, Arizona, and New Hampshire -- and we're taking President Bush to court.

Here's what our President -- tone-deaf on health care, as on so many other issues -- had to say about health care back in July:

I mean, people have access to health care in America. After all, you just go to an emergency room.

Is he kidding? When was the last time that George W. Bush -- son of a President, grandson of a Senator -- tried to get basic health care in an emergency room?

Has he ever set foot in the kind of overtaxed, underfunded hospital that serves low-income neighborhoods in America's cities? Has he ever waited all day to see the traveling doctor who visits a rural community one afternoon a week? Sat in a crowded hospital triage room for four hours? Waited six weeks for an appointment at a public clinic?

Has George W. Bush ever been turned away for medical services -- for anything -- because he couldn't afford to pay?

It's easy for President Bush to play politics. But the lives of real children are at stake. Here in New Mexico, where I am Governor, the SCHIP-funded New Mexikids program brings immunizations, regular checkups, and other health services to 19,000 low-income children. We're poised to expand the program to cover 11,000 more.

Basic health services, like immunizations and regular checkups, are one of the most cost-effective ways of giving children a leg up in life. But our short-sighted President would rather turn his back on America's children.

We must not let this happen. Please join me today, help us win our lawsuit, and protect this critically important program from political interference.

Sincerely,
Governor Bill Richardson

P.S. You can email your Congressmember about SCHIP by clicking here. Help make sure that he or she knows how you feel!

Big-Spender President Poses As Conservative

The spendthrift currently occupying the White House spent the first six years of his term without vetoing a single spending bill. Domestic spending has grown faster under Bush than it did under Democrat Bill Clinton (who left office with a huge surplus). Bush has not only outspent any previous Democratic president, but he has created the largest debt of any president of any party.

Now he wants to pose as a conservative. He calls the Democratic plan to cover more children with health insurance just more "tax and spend" politics, and says it's a move toward socialized medicine. Unbelievably, he used his first veto of a spending bill to deny healthcare to children (the State Children's Health Insurance Program, or SCHIP).

The SCHIP plan he vetoed would have cost $35 billion over the next five years. Then he turns around and asks for another $190 billion to finance his failure in Iraq (which probably won't even finance a year of the futile war). He is willing to spend hundreds of billions of dollars to finance the killing of thousands of Iraqis and Americans, but he cannot spend $7 billion a year to provide healthcare for children.

He may call himself a conservative, but the American people are not buying it anymore. Most Americans think he has his priorities backward. They want to spend more on healthcare for children and less on Bush's war in Iraq.

A new ABC/Washington Post poll shows that 67% of Americans want to spend less in Iraq and Afghanistan. Only 27% approve of Bush's $190 billion request. Also, 72% of Americans approved of the program to increase children's healthcare coverage, while only 25% opposed it. Even Republicans can't understand the president's skewed priorities.

When Bush took office in 2000, it looked as though the Republican majority might last many years. But the Bush policies, coupled with the immoral and unethical behavior of many Republicans, has destroyed that in a scant 7 years.

Republican elected officials can read the polls. They already knew that as a party they were in trouble. They also know that Bush's latest moves may have sounded the deathknell for their party in the upcoming election. It's possible that in an effort to save themselves, many may desert Bush and help Democrats override his veto on children's healthcare.

Bush seems hellbent on a path to destroy the Republican party.