Perhaps more than any policy decision this year, the president’s decision to veto expansion of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (S-CHIP) was spectacularly dumb. It was bad politics, bad policy, and based on bad reasoning. Lawmakers from both parties, governors from both parties, medical professionals, and children’s’ advocates all agree that Bush’s nonsensical decision does nothing but hurt children.
It’s striking, then, that Bush’s would-be Republican successors all agree with the ridiculous White House line.
If you’ve been following the debate, you no doubt know that practically everything the Bush gang has said about the bipartisan S-CHIP compromise is wrong. If you need a refresher, the WaPo’s usually-mild-mannered Eugene Robinson slammed the president pretty hard today, saying Bush’s veto “should shock the consciences of every American.” He added that the White House’s rationale on the policy is “a pack of flat-out lies.”
But they’re lies that Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney, Fred Thompson, and John McCain happen to believe.
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