Bush Launches War on Children

Posted by Guest Blogger at 11:00 AM on July 17, 2007.

This post, written by Melissa McEwan, originally appeared on Shakesville

I know this story would typically, according to the usual blogsnark headlining rules, be called something like "No Child Left Behind" or "Culture of Life," but I can't even bring myself to be snarky about it. Quite simply, I hate this president, I hate his administration, I hate his entire fucking political party and all their asshole supporters, and this story is perfectly exemplary of why.

Bush Is Prepared to Veto Bill to Expand Child Insurance. And that's just the goddamned headline.

The White House said on Saturday that President Bush would veto a bipartisan plan to expand the Children's Health Insurance Program, drafted over the last six months by senior members of the Senate Finance Committee.

...Tony Fratto, a White House spokesman, said: "The president's senior advisers will certainly recommend a veto of this proposal. And there is no question that the president would veto it."

The program currently insures about 7 million children and will expire at the end of September unless Congress renews it. The Democrats want to renew it and provide an additional funding to expand it, for which the Senate proposes to pay by increasing the federal excise tax on cigarettes from its current 39¢ to $1. But Fratto says, "Tax increases are neither necessary nor advisable to fund the program appropriately," and claims that expanding the program "will have the effect of encouraging many to drop private coverage, to go on the government-subsidized program."

That's the kind of thinking right there that makes me hate them. What person in his or her right fucking mind honestly believes that there are people just waiting for a government program to take advantage of so they can move their already insured kids onto a government-run program? And not just a few people here and there, but hordes of them--so many just waiting to bilk the government that we can't afford to risk insuring kids who aren't insured, because of all the horrible adults laying in wait to screw the taxpayers, including, presumably, themselves, since they obviously work (and pay taxes) if their kids are already insured.

Jebus. I hate these people. I hate them. They're the reason sayings like "A thief always thinks someone is stealing from him" exist. They have such poor characters--so deeply devoid of the tiniest wee modicum of integrity, conscience, or honesty--that they can't begin to imagine there are people who don't grab whatever they can get their dirty little paws on, irrespective of whether they need it or whether it's ethical to take. And then they go around crowing that "Republicans are the party of winners, Democrats are the party of losers."

That unmitigated horseshit just gets on my last good nerve until my eyes are twitching and my fists are clenching and I just have to rant to stop my head from well and truly exploding.

I hate the immutable beliefs among "George Bush Conservatives" that this country is the Almighty's gift to the world, especially when it's still a really shitty place to live for lots of struggling people, that those people are always, only, to blame for their troubles.

I hate that the idea that some of us could do with a little less so that others could have a little more has become a punchline.

I hate that they call us the America-haters, as they wrap themselves in the flag and declare themselves the True Patriots while turning America into a nation where the natural and philsophical resources are raped and destroyed in the acquisition of more wealth, where philanthropy and empathy are relegated to little more than cute, clichéd memories, and where the barrel-chested barons of a new Gilded Age stand astride the bodies of those who have been condemned to less fortunate fates, singing the praises of social Darwinism and bellowing about the superfluity of a social safety net. "The government never gave me anything!" they declare, as they deposit their million-dollar checks from their latest no-bid Defense Department contract then head off to Tiffany's to get the Little Woman a bauble with their fat tax return.

I hate that they suggest there's something wrong with those of us who don't wrap our hands around the throat of American Dream and wring every last bit of life out of it to our own benefit.

And I hate them for all of it.

Tagged as: bush, bush administration, child insurance

Melissa McEwan writes and edits the blog Shakesville.