We all knew it was nonsense, but George W. Bush DID campaign as a so-called "compassionate conservative." That sounded good for many people: compassionate, but conservative. Whatever that means. Apparently, it meant very little.
The Federal government has a health care program for poor children, called SCHIP. Congress voted to expand it. Bush said no. So for now, many children will continue to go without health insurance. It's a mystery how he gets away with this, and maybe Bush won't, but a sure sign that our political culture quickly forgets about stuff like this is the arsenic policy of 2001, prior to 9/11, when Bush "announced plans to rescind a Clinton-era regulation limiting the amount of arsenic allowed in drinking water." We all howled when the arsenic decision was made, but who remembers now?
Our system of goverment means that someone's got to make these tough decisions. That person is in the form of President Dingbat. Bush told an audience the other day: "My job is a decision-making job. And as a result, I make a lot of decisions. And it’s important for me to have an opportunity to speak to you and others who would be listening about the basis on which I have made decisions, to explain the philosophy behind some of the decisions I have made."
The buffoonery surrounding American health care policy allows the President to get away with suggesting over the summer that we all, in fact, really do have health insurance. "The immediate goal is to make sure there are more people on private insurance plans. I mean, people have access to health care in America. After all, you just go to an emergency room.” So if the children are dying or suffered a serious injury, they can go to the hospital for health care. If they have a fever or need routine check-ups that can forestall more serious health problems down the road, they can also go to the emergency room. Except that the emergency room does not provide routine treatment and check-ups. Only a god-damned moron would suggest that access to the emergency room qualifies as guaranteed health care.
