Thursday, October 18, 2007

SCHIP Veto Override Lowlights

The Admiral is live-blogging this House event, which is not expected to overturn President Bush's veto. Judging by the following blurbs, it's evident the Democrats know it:

10:13 - Steve King (R-IA) says S-CHIP stands for Socialized Clinton-style Hillarycare for Illegals and their Parents. It's a Trojan horse for socialized medicine. Dingell objects strenuously to the poster. "It doesn't even look like the Hillarycare proposal!"
I was waiting for a 'Pubbie to come up with a satirical alternative acronymical definition. That one's a bit wordy, but it'll do until I have the time to think of a better one.

10:15 - Pete Stark says that the Republicans will find enough money to fund the war and "kill kids". Nice. I can see in the Constitution where military resources and war fall under Constitutional responsibilities - can Stark point out where it covers health care?

10:17 - "Bush just likes to blow things up." That gets an admonition from the Chair to Stark, and Kevin Brady (R-TX) calls Stark's comments "beneath contempt". Brady notes that Republicans created and support S-CHIP, but not federal subsidies to the middle-class. The Republicans paid for the entire ten years when they passed it - the Democrats have not paid for it.
Oooh, the Donks are getting a might testy this morning. Gee, I thought that a Bush veto was going to panic a couple of dozen Republicans into switching sides to override it; I also thought that a failure to override was going to hand the Democrats a PR billyclub to bludgeon their GOP foes for the next twelve months (and change). Doesn't sound to me like the Dems are all that confident if they're resorting to playground-calibre whining.

It's heartening to see 'Pubbies wielding the concrete arguments against this Rodhamoid Trojan Horse - namely, that SCHIP is supposed to be for "poor" children, not lazy, shiftless, adult wool-gatherers (whether they have kids or not), and not a fiscal intoxicant for the middle class. Indeed, a very strong parallel can be made between Donk attempts to get non-"poor" families hooked on entitlements and Big Tobacco's alleged attempts to peddle their product by cultivating mass nicotine addiction. Democrats as welfare "pushers"; now there's an RNC ad I'd like to see.

On this day, at least, GOPers are firing on all cylinders, and SCHIP v. 2.0 is their rapidly dessicating target.

UPDATE: More cherry-picked highlights....

10:26 - Heather Wilson (R-NM), who wants to run for the GOP's open Senate seat, argues to override the Bush veto on the S-CHIP expansion.
That perfidy alone should kill her Senate candidacy, at the very least.

10:37 - Poster family alert! Rahm Emanuel trots out the Sweeneys - but they already qualify for S-CHIP!
When all you have to sell is crap, all you can do is shovel harder.

11:08 - Heath Schuler says his children pray for all kids - so then why limit it to 400% of poverty level? It's an argument for exactly what the Republicans have accused the Democrats of doing - establishing a precedent for universal government health coverage.
Wasn't Schuler - the man who, as the quarterback of the Washington Redskins, once head-butted a concrete wall after scoring a touchdown, the effects of which evidently have never entirely abated - one of those "conservative" Democrats that got elected in a "red" state (North Carolina) last fall? Think this floor speech might not be useful for his GOP challenger a year from now?

11:11 - Pete Stark continues his lunacy - "You don't want to talk about spending $200 billion to kill innocent Iraqis."

11:22 - Stark started his personal attacks on President Bush again, and got shut down by the Chair ... finally. Republicans called the point of order, noting that it was the third offense.

11:32 - Stark said, "Under the Republican plan by 2017, we probably will have killed 20,000 soldiers in Iraq ..." Joe Barton demanded a point of order, and if the Chair rules Stark out of order, he can't speak in the House the rest of the day.
Forget throwing him off the floor, they ought to censure his ass at the very least. Asshole.

Here's the video, BTW....



11:35 - The Chair doesn't rule Stark out of order.
Figures.

11:50 - Pelosi, still speaking, does a bait-and-switch. She says that the Republicans are wrong about the expansion covering people at 400% of the poverty level - by showing current statistics of S-CHIP. This isn't about who's on now, it's about who gets put on after the expansion. Talk about intellectual dishonesty!
Don't you have to have an intellect before you can be dishonest about it?
12:16 - House fails to override, 273-156.
Har har, hardy-har har.

Good luck with your next porcine cosmetic application sortie, nutters. With as many as your nominee has already, you're gonna need it.