HEALTH CARE
Letting The SCHIPs Fall
Earlier
this summer, Congress passed bills that would increase five-year
funding for
the State Children's Health Insurance Program
(SCHIP) by $50
billion in the House and $35
billion in the
Senate. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) announced this week that
the two chambers had reached a compromise, and the House would vote
on a modified version of the bill. SCHIP currently provides
insurance for six
million children; the planned expansion would provide coverage
to an additional four million children who would otherwise be uninsured. SCHIP, a joint
federal-state partnership that covers children without health
insurance, is
"widely
regarded as one of the country's greatest
social policy successes." A Senate
report found that after the implementation of SCHIP, "the
percentage of uninsured children declined from 13.9% in 1997 to 8.9% in
2005." Despite the overwhelming majority of Americans firmly
supporting greater funding, President Bush has threatened
a
veto. A veto would
endanger the sustainability of the program, as the current SCHIP
authorization is set to expire on Sept. 30.
BUSH THREATENS VETO: Bush has
attempted to halt the expansion of SCHIP in two ways: he
has threatened an outright veto of the program's federal funding and
attempted to subvert
individual states' ability to set their own
guidelines for participation in SCHIP. White House Press
Secretary Dana Perino recently
promised that the President would only
consider signing legislation if it conformed to his request for "$5
billion more over five years." By
blocking states' capability to
determine eligibility in SCHIP, the administration is undermining
state's ability to reach uninsured children. "The
administration regularly touted the system's
flexibility as the key to its
efficiency and a model for other federal health programs." Now the
administration is attacking SCHIP for that same flexibility. It has
also attached qualifications for federal funding that
are, by all reasonable standards, impossible
to meet.
61 CENTS TO INSURE FOUR MILLION: The expanded SCHIP program would be
financed almost entirely by a marginal increase in taxes on tobacco
products. Bush has expressed his opposition to the bill largely
on ideological terms, apparently finding an increase on
tobacco products to be at greater odds with his ideology than four
million uninsured American children. Reports have shown, however, that "higher state
taxes on smokers have produced
sharp declines in consumption. The amount
of
decline in smoking is directly tied to the size of the tax
increase." Even Bush's own "Cancer Panel" recommended that Bush
no longer "acquiesce
to the demands of the industries that encourage" the "disease and
death caused by tobacco use." According to the
American Medical Association, "for each 10 percent increase in
the price of cigarettes, youth
smoking is reduced by 7 percent, and overall consumption by 4
percent." Furthermore, the public overwhelmingly supports raising
tobacco taxes, by a margin of 67
percent to 28 percent.
STATES SPEAK OUT IN SUPPORT: Governors
from 28 states, both
Democrats and Republicans, recently signed onto a letter written by
Govs. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R-CA) and Eliot Spitzer (D-NY), chastising
Bush for his stance on SCHIP. They wrote that "your administration has repeatedly
modified existing
Medicaid and SCHIP rules, harming states' capacity to help you
achieve
our shared objectives. The recently-proposed SCHIP rules
will reverse longstanding
agreements with the states and reduce the number of children who
receive health care." Spitzer has also also threatened
to sue the federal government "on charges that new regulations on
children's health
insurance violate
an existing program that covers children from lower-income
families." Bush's divisive stance on SCHIP comes in the face of
bipartisan support at both the state and federal levels. The
Senate bill passed 68-31,
with enough votes to override a presidential veto.
A bipartisan
letter from the Governor's Association wrote, "It is important that
the program allow Governors room within which to establish coverage
policies that work best in their state," and "a timely and full
reauthorization of the State Children's Health
Insurance Program (SCHIP) is the Governors' highest health care
priority this year."
IRAQ -- STATE DEPARTMENT
'DISCOUNTS'
IRAQI REPORT, CLINGS TO BLACKWATER LINE OF 'DEFENSIVE FIRE': On
Sunday, employess of an American private security company, Blackwater
USA, were involved
in a
shoot out in Baghdad that left at least 11 civilians dead.
A spokeswoman for the firm told reporters that the "independent
contractors acted
lawfully and appropriately in
response to a hostile attack." On Tuesday, State Department
spokesman Sean McCormack supported Blackwater's version of the events,
saying "the
basic fact is that there was an attack on the convoy." But
yesterday, "a
preliminary Iraqi report" stated, "There
was not shooting against the convoy. ... There was no fire from anyone
in the square."
Witnesses who spoke to McClatchy supported the Iraqi report. The State Department has dismissed the report.
"The convoy came under attack and there was defensive
fire as a result of that," said spokesman Tom Casey, adding that there
are various
eyewitness accounts. "This is different from an eyewitness account,"
replied a reporter. "This is the Iraqi investigation. So
you're discounting their investigation." State's defense of
Blackwater is not new. The Washington Post reports today despite
continuing complaints, "many U.S. and Iraqi officials and industry
representatives said they
came to see Blackwater as untouchable, protected
by State Department
officials who defended the company at every turn."
ENVIRONMENT -- WAXMAN ACCUSES EPA
OF VIOLATING CLEAN AIR ACT: Yesterday, House Oversight Committee
Chairman Henry Waxman
(D-CA) wrote to Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) Administrator Stephen Johnson, accusing the agency of violating
the Clean Air Act when it granted a permit to a new coal-fired power plant in August.
Waxman, "an ardent environmentalist, argued the agency ignored its
obligation to meet newly established Supreme Court guidelines to regulate
the emission of carbon dixoide." The
Court ruled in Massachussetts v. EPA that the EPA both had the
authority and the requirement under the Clean Air Act to regulate
greenhouse gases. "Under the clear terms of the Clean Air Act, EPA
can avoid taking further action only if it determines that greenhouse
gases do not contribute to climate change or if [it] provides some reasonable explanation as to why it cannot or
will not excercise its discretion to determine whether they do." Waxman
requested that the EPA provide the Committee with "copies of
all documents relating to communications between the EPA and any other
federal agency or the White House" relating to the decision to issue
the plant permit by Oct. 3.
RADICAL RIGHT -- REP. KING: THERE ARE
'TOO MANY MOSQUES' IN AMERICA, WE SHOULD 'INFILTRATE' ISLAM. In
2006, President Bush appeared alongside then-House Homeland Security
Committee Chairman Peter King (R-NY) and heaped praise on the
Congressman, calling him a "strong, strong chairman" who was "doing
a fine job to help us protect this country." The Politico reported
yesterday that King, now ranking member on the
Committee, is now directly attacking
Muslims. In a recent interview, King said: "Unfortunately, we have
too many mosques in this country. There are too many people who are
sympathetic to radical Islam. ... We should be finding out how we
can infiltrate." Throughout his tenure in Congress, King has
regularly stereotyped and launched racist attacks at Muslim-Americans.
You "could say that 80-85 percent of mosques in this country are controlled by
Islamic fundamentalists," he said in 2004. Muslims are
"an enemy living amongst us," he added. "They won't tell what's going
on in the mosques. They won't come forward and cooperate with the
police." Gen. John Abizaid recently stated, "the battle of words is
meaningful, especially in the Middle East to people." With members
of Congress like Peter King, we continue to lose
that battle.
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Senate conservatives' successful effort to obstruct the Webb
amendment yesterday mark the "the
eighth time this year" that they "blocked a
Democratic move to challenge U.S. policy in Iraq."
71.1 percent: The increase last month in the numbers of
Iraqis forced to abandon their homes, "the
sharpest rise so far."
Mary Matalin, a former Cheney aide, is working
to pay the legal bills of her old co-worker, "Scooter" Libby, to whom the President granted
clemency earlier this year. "Make no mistake, Scooter's battle is
not yet over," Matalin wrote in a recent fundraising letter. He "still
has hundreds of thousands of dollars in outstanding legal bills from his trial" that "need to be paid immediately."
White House officials say that, after the attorney general
confirmation, the nomination of Steven G. Bradbury to head the Office
of Legal Counsel (OLC) "is their
next priority this fall, though they have nine major slots at a
depleted Justice Department to fill." As acting OLC chief, Bradbury has
been "advising President Bush on the extent of his
terrorism-fighting powers," but several Democratic senators have
placed secret holds on his official nomination.
An anonymous senator has placed a hold on the nomination of Rosa
Emilia Rodriguez-Velez as U.S. attorney in Puerto Rico. Critics
charge "she is leading a politically
motivated investigation into Puerto Rico's Democratic governor" on
possibly illegal campaign contributions he received in 2000.
Rep. Jerry Weller (R-IL), "dogged by ethics questions
surrounding his Nicaraguan investments and his wife's finances, is set
to announce his retirement in the near future, Republican sources
said Wednesday."
Osama bin Laden will reportedly release
a new message soon declaring war on Pakistani President Pervez
Musharraf. A banner posted on a militant website previewed the
release: "Urgent, Al Qaeda declares war on the tyrant
Pervez Musharraf and his apostate army, in the words of Osama bin
Laden."
And finally: Yesterday, Rudy Giuliani was "on the trans-Atlantic
campaign trail...bragging about his international credentials. 'I'm
probably one
of the four or five best known Americans in the world,' Giuliani told a small group of reporters at a posh
London hotel as onlookers gathered in the lobby to gawk at actor Dustin
Hoffman, who was on a separate visit."
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Senate approves a measure aimed at curbing wartime contracting
abuse by protecting "witnesses
who expose corruption and waste."
LOUISIANA:
"Tens of thousands of people" are expected to descend on the town of
Jena to protest "excessive criminal charges against six black teenagers
involved in a schoolyard brawl." More about the Jena 6 HERE.
MARYLAND:
Maryland Senate President "said yesterday that he would not support
legislation to legalize same-sex marriage or civil unions."
WISCONSIN:
New legislation would allow health care professionals to "refuse to dispense
emergency contraception to sexual assault victims if it offends
their religious beliefs."
THINK
PROGRESS: Australian Prime Minister John Howard's party bans
members from Al Gore's global warming speeches.
CONSCIENCE OF A LIBERAL:
New York Times columnist Paul Krugman starts his own blog.
TPM MUCKRAKER:
In testimony, a former Justice Department official contradicts the
Director of National Intelligence on FISA.
"I'm the decision maker."
President Bush, 1/26/07,
on his authority to make Iraq war policy
VERSUS
"People listen to Petraeus, not to me."
-- President Bush, 9/19/07,
on his authority to make Iraq war policy
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