Dear George, how dare you veto SCHIP?

Amos 4:6-8

Thus says the Lord:
For three transgressions of Israel,
and for four, I will not revoke the punishment;
because they sell the righteous for silver,
and the needy for a pair of sandals—
they who trample the head of the poor into the dust of the earth,
and push the afflicted out of the way;
father and son go in to the same girl,
so that my holy name is profaned;
they lay themselves down beside every altar
on garments taken in pledge;
and in the house of their God they drink
wine bought with fines they imposed.

Dear President Bush,

Jim Wallis recently asked you, very nicely, if you'd lost your way when you indicated that you were considering a veto of the expanded SCHIP legislation that was being passed in Congress. Now, we hear that you have indeed vetoed SCHIP.

Jim is an ordained minister, so he is obligated to be polite and respectful. I am not ordained, so I have no such obligation.

You claimed to be a "compassionate conservative." You then proceeded to declare an unjust war, to cause massive Iraqi civilian casualties, and to condone torture. So, we always knew you were lying on the "compassionate" part.

But you're also a conservative, and conservatives are pro-family. You claim, though, that expanding SCHIP legislation is a step towards national healthcare. Well, we passed Medicare and Medicaid in response to real human needs, didn't we? Isn't it pro-family to expand SCHIP to respond to the needs of kids? And we still don't have nationalized healthcare or even universal health insurance despite Medicare and Medicaid. Yes, many of us who want universal coverage see SCHIP as a possible stepping stone. But we know that hypocrites like you will oppose us every step of the way, and that we might not succeed.

The way I see it, you have three choices. One, respond to real human needs, and pass SCHIP. Two, move to repeal Medicare, Medicaid, and SCHIP - after all, those all are forms of socialized medicine. Here, at least, you would remain honest to your principles, despicable as I find them. Or three, the God you supposedly worship and the whole world all know you're a hypocrite, so you can choose the status quo of vetoing SCHIP and letting kids go without health care.


Addendum: an alternative take, by Sen Orrin Hatch (a Republican from Utah) is that President Bush was misled ("sold a bill of goods") by some members of his party. Sen Hatch voted for the SCHIP expansion, as did a number of other Republicans.