Now He Wants Compromise

Bush is playing the great conciliator today, claiming that he would be willing to increase spending for the S-CHIP program and reach a compromise.

The president on Wednesday vetoed legislation that would increase spending for the State Children's Health Insurance Program by $35 billion over five years. Bush has called for a $5 billion increase. Several Republicans in both chambers have sided with Democratic lawmakers on the issue.

"If putting poor children first takes a little more than the 20 percent increase I have proposed in my budget for SCHIP, I am willing to work with leaders in Congress to find the additional money," Bush said in his weekly radio address.

Too bad, dude. The bill passed by large majorities in both houses of Congress already represented a compromise. There's no need for any further compromise, especially when you continue lying about the program that was passed.

The president also said the bill moving through Congress needs to move adults off the program. However, his administration has approved waivers that allowed some states to cover adults.

"In fact, based on their own projections for this fiscal year, Minnesota, Illinois, New Jersey, Michigan, Rhode Island and New Mexico will spend more SCHIP money on adults than they do on children," Bush said. "And that is not the purpose of the program."

The bill passed by Congress does call for gradually giving states less federal matching money when covering certain adults. It also says the administration cannot grant any new waivers to states that want to cover adults through SCHIP.

The president noted that his administration has added more than 2 million children to the SCHIP rolls since 2001.

(Majority Leader Steny) Hoyer often cited Republicans to make his point that the bill is bipartisan.

"As Senator Pat Roberts, a strong Republican from Kansas, recently said: 'I am not for excessive spending and strongly oppose the federalization of health care. And if the administration's concerns with this bill were accurate, I would support a veto.' But Senator Roberts added: 'Bluntly put, they are not.'"

The President doesn't add people to the S-CHIP rolls, either. State governors do, and in fact the President just authorized harsh new regulations that would strip millions from the benefit, more than have been added in recent years.

The bottom line is that the program is successful, targeted, and popular. And it's a testament to all three of these things that the only way to vote against it is to say things like this from nutjob Idaho Rep. Bill Sali (no, not the wide stance guy, the other one):

"This bill is very harmful. It takes money from hardworking Americans while opening the door to provide health insurance to undocumented foreign nationals, including gang members, drug cartel operatives and terrorists. Further, it taxes Idahoans to provide health insurance to people already covered by private insurance or those who can afford to get it."

If you fund S-CHIP, the terrorists win. And they get Vicodin prescriptions!

I guess Sali is talking about terrorists under the age of 18?