Money trumps peace... and kid's health too.

The Democrat says, we have a chance to
ensure that all children in the country have
health care. The Congress is going to pass an
expansion of the existing children's health care
program, administered by each state, to insure 3
million more children in working families. It is
paid for by increasing the tax on a pack of
cigarettes.

President Bush says, he would veto an
expansion of the S-CHIP program because it
is a form of socialized medicine that will
encourage people to drop their private
insurance and join a government insurance
plan. That's the wrong approach

Wouldn't a much less slanted poll be something along the lines of:

The existing S-CHIP program uses tax dollars to fund a health insurance program for children of families who cannot afford health insurance.

Would you support, through an increase in the existing taxes on tobacco, an expansion of that plan to include the children of families who can afford health insurance?

cf Perino's patronizing response (and reverting to smear and deflect) when the question of priorities was raised. (Namely, rejecting SCHIP while asking for another lavish cheque for war -- ntm while the war dogs are panting to start yet another elective war.)

She sneeringly claimed that the Dems have taxes without sunset on the brain to pay for the war, though fails to explain that the public are paying for it anyway.

Igonore what the plan would really do and talk about what it should be doing.

The main sticky points is this program is classic Washington spending where the main program is padded with all sorts of extras that go way beyond what the original legislation was intended to do.

Yes this will give kids healthcare.  It also will get lots of the money from Tabbacco (which is really just a tax on the poor) it will apply to "kids" up to 25 years old and apply to "poor famalies" making up to $65K a year.

Really?

Basically the bill has too much fluff in it.

Remove the fluff and Bush will let it through.  He has said as much.  But of course BTD and dems aren't really interested in helping the poor just scoring cheap political points.

This is what we (conservatives) elected Bush to do.  Cut the spending by not allowing Congress to pad feel good legistlation with government handouts.  It's a shame it took until the 11th hour of his presidency to reign in Washington it's never too late.

With a presidential veto of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) now official, Congressional Democrats have formally embarked on a campaign to find the 15 to 20 votes from House Republicans they will need to override President Bush's veto pen.

Aides say because the $35 billion expansion of the program originated in the House, that chamber will go first in its attempt to override Bush's third veto ever as president (his veto of the Water Development Act today makes four). That vote is likely to come during the week of Oct. 15, leaving two more weeks for Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to exert political pressure on any wavering Republicans. The Senate will follow suit, presumably only if the House secures the two-thirds majority of those present -- the voting ratio that is required by the Constitution to beat a presidential veto. The Senate already has enough votes, 67, to defeat Bush's veto, so all the drama is on the House side for this showdown.

The magic number of votes Pelosi will need is a bit of a moving target at this point, depending on how many lawmakers are present for the vote. There are currently two open seats vacated by a death and a retirement, meaning if all 433 current members voted Democrats need 289 votes to win.