Grassley's SCHIP Pleas Unheeded

A "frustrated" Sen. Charles Grassley (D-IA) is trying to swim up the Bush administration's roaring corporate-profits river as.... "Health plan for Iowa kids in jeopardy. Grassley asks Bush to accept deal on insurance funding."

The Decider announced in his press conference yesterday that he plans to veto the bipartisan State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) legislation that would renew that program and expand it by $35 billion to cover an additional 3 million American children.... the increase to be paid for with increased tobacco taxes. Bush wants to expand it by just $5 billion.

There's that silly number again. Billions. Billions for the Iraq war. Billions in corporate profits for wealthy friends of George.... but not enough billions to insure the health of America's children.

It's simple really, The Decider explained his position.... "What I"m describing here is a philosophical divide that exists in Washington over the best approach for health care.... And, instead of encouraging people to drop private coverage in favor of government plans, we should work to make basic private health insurance affordable and accessible for all Americans."

That's political speak for putting more profits into the grasping paws of insurance and drug companies. Remember, many conservative Republicans have long wanted to rid the country of Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and other government-administered social net programs.

So, Grassley's frustration will continue as long as The Decider.... well, decides.... and Congress lets him.

Grassley also noted that Bush "was incorrect" during the press conference when he said the agreement would offer government help to children living in households with incomes of up to $83,000 a year. Grassley said that would not happen under the congressional proposal.

Grassley related that he had called the White House on Wednesday to ask if he and Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) could have a personal meeting with the president to make an appeal.

He was told that the president was already planning on making a statement about SCHIP. An astounded Grassley asked them how that was possible when the details of the Senate compromise were not yet settled.

To quote, Grassley: "I said, 'How in the heck can you make a statement when you don't know what the deal is?' "

Grassley acknowledged that the conversation seemed to have little impact and that the administration failed to work with Congress to forge an agreement that both sides could accept.

Of course not. The Decider's mind was made up. No compromise would be good enough because it wouldn't benefit his corporate buddies.

Because of the The Decider's rigid and willfully-deceitful stance on the bipartisan SCHIP bill, Iowa (among other states) may not be able to pay October premiums for it's HAWK-I federal/state childrens' insurance program that is to expire September 30.

"I'm disappointed," Grassley said.

That doesn't even begin to cover it for the disgusted American people.

More Bush Braying

Watching The Decider's press conference this morning, one can't help but be struck by the.... audacity of the man.

As the headline in the Washington Post records.... "Bush Optimistic About Economy."

Huh?

The economy's great!?.... unless you wanted that job that illegal aliens are now doing, or the one that was shipped abroad.... unless you want affordable health insurance and a worry-free retirement.... unless you want to convert your mortgage or sell your home.... unless you want to take a holiday abroad.... or just to have the comfort of knowing you're life savings and way of life aren't being recklessly gambled away by an ideologically-driven incurious simpleton.

Forget the unsustainable national debt, the unprecedented level of mortgage foreclosures, the 14% unemployment rate of blacks and the U.S. dollar on life-support.... (sing) let's all join hands and skip about, while spending more billions on Iraq's shoot-out.

The president's optimism is more than just disconnected, inexplicably arrogant.... or as the former president of Mexico said of The Decider.... world-class cockiness. He's either a strutting dim-wit or out to destroy our country as we knew it before Bush and his bully boys took over.

How would you classify this maneuver by the White House as reported in Vanity Fair this month in "Billions over Baghdad".... about some billions in cash that went missing in Iraq. After the 2003 invasion, the Iraq Coalition Provisional authority received $12 billion in cash from the New York Federal Reserve - that is 363 tons of money.

Well... $9 billion of this cash simply vanished. That's 272 tons of cash!! The job of auditing and disbursing this money was outsourced. To a firm, NorthStar, so small that it's mailing address is a post-office box in Nassau, and it's "office" a split-level home in La Jolla, California.

As former Fed Chairman Greenspan noted in his new book, this is a "dysfunctional" government. He was kind. Isn't it more like a criminally dysfunctional government?

One thing The Decider trumpeted at his news conference that we can readily agree with.... corporate profits "seem to be strong." Oh yes... just ask NorthStar and the "Baghdad billionaires."

The Decider Babbles On...

President Bush held a press conference yesterday.... asserting that the economy is strong.... in the real world the stock market DOW was in the process of losing almost 390 points.... and then took questions, or should we say listened to questions and then drifted off into la-la land when answering.

Example.

QUESTION: "Given the decision to commute the sentence of Libby, given the performance of Iraqi leaders, is it fair for people to ask questions about your commitment to accountability."

BUSH: [After declaring himself "deliberate in my decision-making" and a "fair person"... he wandered back to his favorite subject, Iraq.] ..... "It matters if the United States does not believe in the universality of freedom. It matters to the security of people here at home if we don't work to change the conditions that caused 19 kids to be lured onto airplanes to come and murder our citizens.

"The first question one has to ask on Iraq is: Is it worth it? I could not send a mother's child into combat if I did not believe it was necessary for our short-term and long-term security to succeed in Iraq."

Whoa! Work to "change the conditions" that caused "19 kids" to be "lured" onto airplanes on 9/11. That sounds like clowns handing out lollipops to beardless innocents.

First of all, the terrorists weren't kids. They ranged in age from the early twenties to 33.

And, to "change the conditions" that caused the terrorists to act we should have invaded Saudi Arabia. Of the nineteen "kids," fifteen were from Saudi Arabia, two from the United Arab Emirates, one from Egypt and one from Lebanon.... none were from Iraq.

Bush was asked about Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki's current (and photographed) hand-holding visit with Iran's madman President Ahmadinejad, where it was reported that Maliki said "he appreciated Iran's positive and constructive stance" on Iraq.

Bush's delusional reply, "Now if the signal is that Iran is constructive, I will have a heart to heart with my friend, the prime minister. Because I don't believe they are constructive.

"I don't think he, in his heart of heart, thinks they're constructive either."

Oh no.... The Decider is looking into another Putinish soul and opining.

Will someone please tell Bush his hair is on fire! That we are fighting Iran's war for them in Iraq.... that both Maliki and Iran are Shiites.... and, that as soon as we turn our backs Maliki will rush into Iran's arms... if not sooner.

Eugene Robinson in his op ed today, "Just Another Vacation From Reality" (WaPo) asks why Iraq or any nation would appreciate being invaded, occupied and having Western democracy imposed at the point of a gun?

They wouldn't. But, The Decider justifies.... "I firmly believe it is an ideological struggle. And I believe it's a struggle between the forces of moderation and reasonableness and good and the forces of murder and intolerance.

"And what has made the stakes so high is that those forces of murder and intolerance have shown they have a capacity to murder innocent people in our own country....."

The Decider won't recognize that the "forces of murder".... no longer "kids," I guess.... weren't from Iraq, but from Saudi Arabia.

What he "thinks," and his neocon ideology justifies, is clear. As long as he is in office he'll wage war in Iraq, regardless of the facts on the ground or the price our country is paying.

Bush turns a deaf ear to the American public's answer "NO" when he asks... "Is it worth it?."

As Robinson says.... "if you think Bush is going to care what [Gen.] Petraeus's report says in September, get out of the sun immediately and drink lots of water. You're delirious."