Tell Us Why, Mr. Bush
Dick Meyer Detects An Aroma Of Hypocrisy In Dustup Over Funding Of Health Program For Children
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Having already proven its incompetence in foreign and fiscal affairs, and its arrogance toward the Constitution and the other branches of government, the Bush administration is now determined to show skeptics that it can also be absolutely hypocritical.
A very experienced colleague suggested to me the other day that President Bush is determined not to squander his historic unpopularity. He's going to use it to do whatever the hell he wants because he just doesn't seem to care much anymore.
That seems to be the case with the issue of providing health insurance for poor children.
You may have heard there is a scrap about this now in Congress, or rather, between Congress and the president.
Democrats and Republicans a decade ago managed to get their acts together long enough to enact a program called the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). The idea was to get coverage for otherwise uninsured children in very low income families with earnings too high to qualify for Medicaid. Today, about 6.6 million children benefit from this program.
On September 30th, SCHIP will expire. So, once again, Democrats and Republicans need to do something that is really, really hard for them: take action. They need to renew the program.
President Bush is reluctantly willing to renew SCHIP with an increase of $5 billion over the next five years. That is probably not even enough to insure the children who already get benefits.
Democrats and Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee want to increase funding for SCHIP by $35 billion over five years. House Democrats want a $50 billion boost. The bipartisan National Governors Association also wants an increase much larger than $5 billion, but doesn't want to get into a catfight.
Why won't the president go along with a real increase? Excellent question.
What he says is that a big increase would be the "beginning of the salvo of the encroachment of the federal government on the health care system."
Huh?
This is the president whose proudest domestic achievement was extending Medicare to cover prescription drugs, one of the biggest "encroachments of the federal government on the health care system" in American history. Honestly, it is mind-boggling that the president could say this.
And I might add that this is the president who engineered the largest federal invasion of public education in history.
But it gets worse. It also gets a little complicated, so stick with me for a second.
House Democrats want to fund an increase for SCHIP by reducing the federal subsidy for a program called Medicare Advantage that pays tax dollars to HMOs to give health insurance to seniors. It's an alternative to Medicare. The idea behind Medicare Advantage was that since large private bureaucracies are so much smarter than large public bureaucracies, it would be cheaper to pay HMOs to cover some seniors than doing it through Medicare.
Wrong.
The government now pays HMOs between 112 and 119 percent of what it costs to cover a person on Medicare. So if it costs the government $100 to cover Sadie Sickly of Illness, Ohio, the government will pay Selfless HMO Inc. $119 to take Mrs. Sickly off their hands. Selfless HMO Inc. – and lots of real life HMOs – make a boatload of money off Medicare Advantage because of this government subsidy.
The Congressional Budget Office thinks that 119 percent subsidy could be cut, and HMOs would still make money and patients would still get good services. So House Democrats want to reduce the government subsidy for HMOs to help pay for an increase in SCHIP funding. Pretty straightforward.
HMOs – surprise, surprise – do not want that Medicare Advantage subsidy to be cut. Neither does President Bush. He thinks the free market is so cool that it should be subsidized by the government.
You see, he doesn't want the government encroaching on the health care system, so he's going take your tax dollars and give them to HMOs so they can encroach on the health care system.
The Senate Finance Committee thinks an increase in SCHIP could be paid for by increasing the tax on cigarettes. The president doesn't like that, either. He's an anti-encroachment guy. Except for HMOs. And prescription drugs.
Snarky and cynical people think the president is simply doing the bidding of tobacco and HMOs. I have no way to know what his motivations are, but I don't think he's just kowtowing to special interests. I think it's more likely he just doesn't want to do something that Democrats and poor people think is important.
Or maybe he has new evidence that the children who qualify for SCHIP are trying to obtain Weapons of Mass Destruction. A source close to the administration told me that.
E-mail questions, comments, complaints, arguments and ideas to
Against the Grain. We will publish some of the interesting (and civil) ones, sometimes in edited form.
By Dick Meyer
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See all 176 CommentsI strongly object to my tax dollars going to insurance companies. We used to have hospitals owned by the city and they were affordable. Seattle still has one (Harborview)and it is the best in the Northwest.
I am for universal health care but opposed to insurance companies skimming and price fixing.
If our attorney generals and insurance regulators were not part of the problem, we would have affordable health care.
President Bush being worried about a big increase would be the "beginning of the salvo of the encroachment of the federal government on the health care system," gives new meaning to what style or system the federal military seems to be referred to by the President, as they reap the greatest encroachment of money program siphoning from the public in all of US history. Bush has polyops on his brain, giving money to murder but nothing for care.
Thanks Mr. Meyer.
Bush is more worried about what history will say about him than he is of the people he is supposed to make sure are taken care of.
They operate as a non profit in all 50 states and bring together Insurance, health care, legal, collection and finance for "training" under one roof.
This is the white collar crime syndicate with a secret membership list that has organized the high cost of medicine in America. In Oregon, they are listed as a "Non Profit Family Farm Cooperative" with the State of Oregon. I guess they grow money trees...
Our worthless attorney general hardy Meyers and corrupt politicians give them tax benefits, liability protection and anything else they want.
At OHSU, they got a 50 million dollar sky tram to take the doctors to their cushy high rise on the river so they don't have to drive their $250,000 car down a hill.
Providence Milwaukie is even more corrupt than OHSU. They charged me $6000 for 9 stiches in my hand, gave me an infection after not cleaning all the metal out of the wound, gave me no antibiotic, then the wrong antibiotic (even though they were warned in writing that I was antibiotic resistant), billed me for the right antibiotic to cover up for the malpractice and now are billing me for another $1000.00 for the infection they gave me after they didn't clean out all the metal from the wound.
Who loses and who wins? Everybody on the HFMA side wins and we lose.
THEY BLOCKED FUNDING FOR WALTER REED!
Here are a list of the Republican Senators up for Reelection in 08.
Ask them how much their support for the Israeli lobby group AIPAC influences their vote on Iraq?
Is their support for Israel more than their duty to the Americans living in their states?
Democrats do it too! Carl Levin and Steny Hoyer are two!
Alexander, Lamar- (R - TN)
Allard, Wayne- (R - CO)
Chambliss, Saxby- (R - GA)
Cochran, Thad- (R - MS)
Coleman, Norm- (R - MN)
Collins, Susan M.- (R - ME)
Cornyn, John- (R - TX)
Craig, Larry E.- (R - ID)
Dole, Elizabeth- (R - NC)
Enzi, Michael B.- (R - WY)
Graham, Lindsey- (R - SC)
Hagel, Chuck- (R - NE)
Inhofe, James M.- (R - OK)
McConnell, Mitch- (R - KY)
Roberts, Pat- (R - KS)
Sessions, Jeff- (R - AL)
Smith, Gordon H.- (R - OR)
Stevens, Ted- (R - AK)
Sununu, John E.- (R - NH)
Warner, John- (R - VA)
If you think Americas sacrifice is worth it contact your ELECTED OFFICIAL and tell them http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/
The House Speakers email address: AmericanVoices@mail.house.gov
info@gop.com Here is the Republican Party email address too!
democraticparty@democrats.org Here is the Democratic Party email address also!
That's brilliant.
Thanks Mr. Meyer.
Posted by CBS_Oliver at 08:01 AM : Jul 26, 2007
+1 !
But why the lickspittle Congress doesn't stop him is the question. Sure they are not veto proof. But do no Repubs even have a conscience?
Or are all Repubs just spineless little suckups, or wetting their pants in fear of the mean ogre Darth Chickenshit?
Yer doin a heckuva job Dumbya!
The answer is simple. Congress is largely made up of perverts and criminals. That is how they are controlled and made to do the bidding of the Zionist Ashkenazi Jews that control D.C. on behalf of the central banks.
Google "Rusty Nelson Hunter Thompson Larry king Senator John DeCamp" And start reading. Rusty Nelson was arrested in Oregon by the FBI within a few days of Hunters "suicide."
Rusty had half a van load of photos of prominent people having *** with mostly children. Rusty earned his living for 30 years by secretly shooting the photos. They were planning to make a documentary together.
A former Senator from Nebraska represented some of the children from the Monarch program that are used in these honey traps and won their case in US court.
The CIA didn't exactly release the "crown Jewels" but they did admit that 6% of their total budget went to mind control studies. Many of the children used were abducted from Boys and Girls Town USA in Omaha, programmed in Project Monarch. These are facts that were proven in a US court in Omaha.
Now you know how business is done in Washington D.C. Money is not the currency of trade, it's blackmail through honey and it ensures complete control.
Read em and weep:
http://educate-yourself.org/cn/franklincoverupexcerpt.shtml
*** Meyer, you just removed yourself from the list of people I think should be imprisoned for life or hung for treason after writing a truthful and well written article. :-)
Keep em coming ***! We need a free press in this country more than ever. The forth branch of government surrendered decades ago and that is when this country actually went down the tube.
The press should deserves most of the credit or wrath, depending on whether we get control of this crime syndicate or lose America all together.
If we have to do it the hard way, it will be real messy and nobody wants that. Nobody. I love my country and I want it back.
-those of us that care have put up with fluff krap that news outlets feed us.
-responsible journalism is appreciated by Americans.
-who knows it may even be profitable.
Big Government Bush with his thousands of pork-barrel highway earmarks must be stopped to protect the children from Bush.
Insurance companies are very rich, very well heeled. United paid its CEO about $250,000,000 one year. That's $250,000,000 that was paid by ratepayers that didn't go to health care providers.
I'm sure Bushit and Chickenshit can be bought for much less than that.
Question answered--problem solved! QED.
Posted by v_1618 at 11:18 AM : Jul 26, 2007
Uhhh...your CapLock key is ON. Just thought I'd mention that.
Dude, if you are going to give lessons that most 5th graders know, you need to learn to spell better than a 1st grader and the use of correct grammer would also be a plus. As for Bush being "the most better President ever", well I think that phrase just rings volumes about your mental capacity!
This article IS in the opinion section and the reason he gave no alternatives is because there are none to this ridiculous fallacy called Dubya!
Did you read the whole thing? Or just the parts that criticized the president?
There were alternatives, provided by BOTH SIDES OF CONGRESS (which almost never, ever happens). The president didn't want to do that. Who knows why. Just another head scratching incidence in his insane presidency.
I've read Mr. Meyer's articles and I've always found to be very straight forward and pretty fair to those he writes about. And I happen to agree with him on this subject.
Good day.
I am not sure what Bush is trying to accomplish either but if he's shootin for the most inconsiderate SOB on the planet he's got a good head start !
I still can't help but wonder if he's really going to reliquish power in 544 days.
Posted by marcodele at 11:23 AM : Jul 26, 2007
Please get your facts straight. Terry Shiavo was responsive and aware at times...Not a 'vegetable' as you so coldly describe a human life. Convenient for your misguided argument but so very wrong.
Wise up not so wiseguy!!!
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