How bipartisan was this bill (that Adam just voted against?).

This Bipartisan.

That’s right, the U.S. Senate, where a Democrat can’t order a sandwich for lunch without a Republican filibustering… passed SCHIP with a veto-proof, 67 vote margin.

The 67-29 vote followed a series of speeches by Republican senators supporting the bill and urging Mr. Bush to reconsider his veto threat.

Senator Pat Roberts of Kansas, one of 18 Republicans who voted for the bill, said the White House had shown “little if any willingness to come to the negotiating table.”

Republican opponents of the bill, like Senators Judd Gregg of New Hampshire and John Cornyn of Texas, said it would be a big step toward socialized medicine, would shift people from private insurance to a public program and would allow coverage for illegal immigrants and children in high-income families.

Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa, said it was “intellectually dishonest” to make such “outlandish accusations.”

Mr. Bush has said the bill would move toward “government-run health care for every American.”

Senator Bob Corker, Republican of Tennessee, said those fears were unfounded.

“What will move our country toward socialized medicine is not this bill, which focuses on poor children, but the lack of action to allow people in need to have access to private affordable health care,” Mr. Corker said.

And those are coming from extremely conservative Republicans. As I pointed out in my original post, this bill is extremely popular with everyone, Democrats and Republicans, and Independents. We all know our healthcare system is broken, when millions of little kids have no access to healthcare. This bill doesn’t even try to fix our healthcare system, it just puts a temporary patch on to keep those kids from getting too sick. And the only two people who seem to think that’s going too far, are Adam Putnam & George W. Bush.

UPDATE: Swing State Project adds Adam (and his buddy Gus Bilirakis, Ric Keller, Dave Weldon, John Mica, and Mario Diaz-Balart) to their S-CHIP Crum Bum Roll-Call. Adam, as the Dean of the Florida delegation, is literally the key person standing in the way of keeping S-CHIP from becoming law. All just to s Despicable.

UPDATE II:  My favorite quote from the above linked Crum Bum Roll-Call is this:

It always amazes me that Republicans are eager to put on their “fiscal conservative” hats when it comes to taking care of society’s most vulnerable constituencies, but are so willing to rubberstamp billions upon billions for an endless war in Iraq with no questions asked.

Friday, September 28th, 2007 @ 11:23 am Congressional Votes, Partisan Politics
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