President Bush's veto of the SCHIP bill appeals to the (tiny, I hope) Leninist in me.
The White House sought as little attention as possible, with the president wielding his veto behind closed doors without any fanfare or news coverage, here. No wonder.
This is what the bill did, again, according to MSNBC.com:
The State Children's Health Insurance Program is a joint state-federal effort that subsidizes health coverage for 6.6 million people, mostly children, from families that earn too much to qualify for Medicaid but not enough to afford their own private coverage.
The Democrats who control Congress, with significant support from Republicans, passed the legislation to add $35 billion over five years to allow an additional 4 million children into the program. It would be funded by raising the federal cigarette tax by 61 cents to $1 per pack.
Again, according to MSNBC.com:
Bush argued that the congressional plan would be a move toward socialized medicine by expanding the program to higher-income families.
So this is the point. Bush's argument is explicitly ideological. He wants children to get sick and die in order to prevent what he believes will be a slide toward what he calls "socialized medicine." Conservatives may not wish to claim him anymore, but this speaks to a fundamental difference between liberals and conservatives, and it's not just about letting kids get sick and die.
Read the whole Altercation here.