We all know the Republican Health Plan is " get sick and die"

Unless you personally deal with or are covered by government sponsored medical programs, you probably will never understand what they are really like. Many of you are unhappy with the way FEMA handled Katrina. Maybe you are upset that you might not see any retirement money from Social Security in the future. The same problems with management occur in government funded medical programs. Doctors for the most part are capitalists. Yes, they hire someone to manage their claims. Its called overhead which is a business expense. If the insurance pays at the same rate or less than your expenses, you lose money. This is where Medicaid, SCHIP, and like programs enter. If I'm in the private practice world, then I probably do NOT take on these patients. I tell these patients to go the medical school or other indigent clinics where they see the poor patients. This creates a bottleneck at these clinics. Medical schools rely more and more on patient service billings than state revenue because states are also pinching pennnies. The schools need to have a mix of payer sources that can cover expenses and keep them from running a deficit (unlike the government that doesn't have to balance its checkbook). So if almost all of these government funded program patients are funnelled into the medical schools and the numbers of patients in these programs increase, then that will increase wait times for these patients to get into see a physician (kind of like the waits heard about in Canada). Its simple economics. If you have a business and one customer routinely pays less and hassels you more, you go to other customers. Medical care is similar. It is already happening to some with Medicare. Because of the proposed cuts in Medicare (up to 40 something % in a decade or less), some private doctors are not taking on new patients with Medicare.

When you talk about Universal Health Care in other countries, you are probably talking about government ran healthcare systems like in Canada and Europe. Hopefully, you are not taking Michael Moore's latest film 'Sicko' as total fact. It has been long documented that these government-ran healthcare models produce long delays in treatment including in Canada and Europe. Recent data suggests these models produce longer lives and less problems with pregnancy and child mortality. You need to remember there also other variables in play here. Healthy habits in societies such as Japan probably contribute much to this improvement of health statistics in their country. The unhealthy practices in the US doesn't help our statistics. When it comes to cutting edge care, the US healthcare system has some of the highest if not the highest rates of success (one in particular is CANCER). This was not accomplished by having a government sponsored or controlled system. Certainly we need to find ways to get healthcare to those who either can't afford it or don't get it because they are worried about the expenses they may incur (people should not be forced to go bankrupt over resonable healthcare). One of the problems with our healthcare model is its successes (the great but expensive advances). If you are among the populus that believes you should have the latest, most expensive medications (Crestor, Plavix, etc), diagnostic tests (yearly whole body MRI's, routine PET scans of the heart), etc than we will need to tax at a much higher rate than what Europe already taxes their citizens and we still may not be able to afford this system.
On the note of government provided healthcare for all, what do you think about government provided housing, food and drink, and transportation for all? I've heard one individual recently on CNN suggest we should just go to work and the government should provide everything else for us. I believe Karl Marx had this same idea of utopia.

The revenue used to pay for the S-CHIP program isn't straight income tax. It's revenue from tax on tobacco (ie: cigarettes). I'm a smoker and I don't mind paying higher prices per pack if it means providing children with health care they wouldn't otherwise get. Why not increase tax on beer and all other alcoholic beverages and throw that revenue into the fund as well? What does it say about America that no one bats an eyelash to spend upwards of $200 billion to send soldiers to their death in Iraq (not to mention slaughtering civilians there) but "putting our foot down" when it comes to shelling out cash to provide poor children with health care? It's asinine!

I'm glad to see that it did not pass the House today. Not because of the children, but because of the fact that a specific group of people were targeted to pay for a national problem while the majority reap the benefits.

I think SCHIP needs to look at a national type of tax which ALL taxpayers would contribute their fair share of the burden. We all pay school taxes, even if we don't ever have kids. If this is going to be a national welfare benefit, then tax everyone as such, not just smokers.

Derrick - San Diego,

Socialism : a broad array of doctrines or political movements that envisage a socio-economic system in which the distribution of wealth are subject to control by the community for the purposes of increasing social and economic equality and cooperation.

FACT: The top 20% of wage earnings in American (account for 40% of the total wealth) - pay almost 70% of all taxes.

This means the remaining 80% of the country pays 30% of all taxes.

NOW THINK: Of these two groups - which receive the greatest benefit?? Obviously the poorest segment of our society (welfare, social security disabiilty, etc etc).

Adding more domestic spending programs to further benefit the non-tax or low-tax paying citizens is simply Robinhood Economics (socialism). The Iraq War will one day end - no more cost. These entitlement programs (expanded SCHIP, universal healthcare, baby bonds, 401-k government contributions, etc) will go on and on and on. And the costs will rise year after year.

You can call me "heartless" - I've actually heard it all before when my kids don't get everything they see or want on TV.

""The government has built in checks and balances. The President is the president!! Thats who "We The People" elected to be our president. The government under the president is there to support and keep policy in line with the ideals of "We The People", …who by the way, elected the republicans to run the country, for those who havn't figured it out yet,if you dont like it impeach the President. Untill then the President is still the president. Unfortunately, when the Democratic party won a few seats in the house and congress, which, by the way for those who dont understand, is a supporting role for our government, they think that every issue is unnegotiable and now warrants a "Coup De Ta", by standing in the way of our government business. Its OK to tell the boss you dont like the way he does things. When he then takes your advice, but decides to do things his way….Thats his perogative, HE'S THE BOSS. (put into that position by "We The People". Stop holding our government entities hostage just because you want things your way(as if we dont know who I am talking about….democrats. In most countries that would be TREASON, and punishable by death. Maybe we need to change some laws to hold our elected officials responsible""
Swanson, you have got to be retarded or maybe you did not make it past 7th grade? The President is not more powerful than congress- Bush is not the "Decider" as he like to call himself- He is the single most powerful person - yes- But each branch is equally powerful- each branch can overrule the other. That what checks and balances mean. Bush is a terrible president- he is wanted for international war crimes- Never before happened in American History our president (and SECDEF) was wanted for WAR CRIMES?!?! His approval waiting is the lowest ever for a president who did NOT Resign from office- Bush would be impeached if Congress had the votes, but unfortunately there are enough remaining republicans to stop that from happening- of course the alternate is worse- Dick Cheany would be a thousand times worse. If you are going to comment at least be truthful- the US is not a dictatorship and the American people and congress deserves to be heard. I hope they overrides Bush's Veto. Amazing how he never vetoed a bill until we had a democratic congress. And the he call them partisan? He is the one who refuese to compromise and be "partisan." Thank God we will have a democratic president in 2008 who can hopefully get this country back on track.

Derrick in SD,

Republicans don't hate socialilism because FOX news tells us to, we hate it for 4 reasons:
1. You are relieving folks of personal responsibility.
2. You are trying to ram it down our throats.
3. Socialism doe not work!
4. You are trying to make the government your mommy and daddy

People keep calling this program "socialized medicine," do they even know what socialized medicine is? Do they even know what socialism is? Do they hate socialism because Fox News and the Republicans tell them so? SCHIP is not socialized medicine- it is common sense. Private Health Insurance is only good if you have a job that provides it or you are wealthy. Otherwise it is too expsensive for the average person to afford. It becuase of this same privatization that Bush advocates that most poor Americans (not just illegal immigrants) can not afford to go the hospital, or turned away from hospitals, or die in the emergency room. The Republican Party is afraid to anger big Health Insurance, so they advocate private coverage- I am for any program that will cover poor children and adults. The United States is one of the few countries that a kid can not go to the hospital if he does not have insurance- we turn sick kids away or force them to stay at home! How can people support these kind of crazy policies! I tell you how, becuase these people jobs provide them with insurance, or they make way more than the average american and can pay for it themselves. Time to start thinking about those people who do not have your advantages. I used to think 83k was a lot of money. Then I moved to California. If you have a wife and kids living in SOCAL- 83k is barely enough to scrape by. You can not afford to pay full coverage health insurance for 2 or 3 kids and live comfortably. Wake up Republicans! Would you rather pay 200 billion dollars to fight a war or 50 billion to help poor kids?

What is wrong with you people? You make it sound like we are giving out BMWs or Yachts to these kids. But instead we are talking about giving them "basic" healthcare. That same healthcare you take for granted when you get sick or cut yourself at home. That same healthcare you take for granted when you find yourself in an emergency room with a broken leg.

This is the United States of America, not some third world country. So stop whining about "let'em get jobs!" or "its to much money!". We are spending trillions of dollars abroad on an endless war. Bush gave a huge tax break to the wealthy. But you can't spend a few million dollars on a problem right here in the United States?

These kids have been ignored by the system for too long. It's time to start protecting our own children or we should consider ourselves a third world country.

Telling it like I see it,
Wynter

Posted By Wynter, Loudon, NH : October 17, 2007 5:45 pm

Yeah we know this bill has been around for a while, Bush supported it as Governor and SIGNED it BEFORE as President.

Guess you don't own a TV as Bush has been on saying that we should take care of the poor children which is the bills original intent and he wants MORE FUNDING as part of the bill.

He has also said that he is willing to compromise, but the Democrats won't even respond to that request as they are to busy hopping in front of the cameras and with the MSM on their side, are milking this for all it is worth, thus they are the ones who are HURTING THE POOR CHILDREN.

So I am not sure where "he is turning a blind eye" comes in here.

Telling it because I know it.

Tom

Well, who pays for Congress Members Health Insurance? I've heard they have a pretty good deal. Hmmmmmmm….

Almost any attempt to stop the growth of government is a good thing.

Go Bush!

ThirstyJon
freedomthirst.com

Many in Congress make it sound like the entire SCHIP program will be funded by a simple 61-cent-per-pack increase on cigarettes. That is FALSE.

Behind the scenes they intend to almost double the price of cigars. In comparison, cigar smokers are a very small group of smokers. Cigar smokers now face a $8 cigar becoming $14+ while cigaretts only go up 61 cents a pack.

The democrats will lead you to believe its all about the children and their healthcare. If this were absolutely true, then why not tax all working taxpayers since this is supposed to benefit on a national level?

The taxes from smokers have funded hundreds of welfare programs, including SCHIP when it started. Why are they not also looking at the other "bad" things like fast food? Fast food contributes to just as many health problems and there is a much larger base of people to tax.

With the increased smoking bans across the USA, there are less people smoking and therefore a smaller tax base to fund such programs. Smoke less so the democrats can higher tax the remaining smokers (for the children, of course).

Meanwhile these same people sit at the drive-through window ordering greasy hamburgers and contribute NOTHING to the welfare SCHIP healthcare the smokers are forced to pay for. WHY?

We all pay school tax when we have no kids. SCHIP is a public welfare service and everyone should have to contribute to it. WHY ONLY SMOKERS?

If this tax was on coffee instead, how would you feel? Overnight, your cup of coffee goes from $.99 to $1.79 due to taxes. Those who don't drink coffee contribute nothing into SCHIP, but reap the benefits of paid healthcare on your every cup of joe?

Just to make this clear, I agree that everyone should have medical benefits, especially children. However it should be funded by everyone's taxes just like all the other welfare programs we already contribute to out of our weekly paychecks. US Adult population over 19 years is apx 221 million. It works out to be $158 per person,per year in extra tax for to equally fund the $35 Billion SCHIP welfare.

Instead, apx 45.1 million people smoke and will be taxed $775 MORE on the tobacco they purchase per year.

But wait, thats not all!
http://www.ncsl.org/print/health/CRSSbyS0807.pdf
Note page #9: August 1 cost estimate where its $47.4 billion for 5 years, then $128.7 billion at 10 years from program expansion.

DOUBLE THE TAX AGAIN IN 2012?

This expansion of the CHIP would ruin it. It is meant to help children of families who are moving to self sufficiency. They lose Medicaid or are inelgible because of income but can't afford total family coverage. This is a transition.

If people making 50 or 60k won't budget, that should not be our problem. What this is all about is buying votes by creating a middle class entitlement out of a good program. It is the entitlements which threaten our government's finacial stability. Adding another one is just foolish.

Veto away.

Stop the spread of Communism!

George Bush supported an increase in funds for SCHIP and expanding the program. The Dems just went to far. They will come up with a compromise and he will sign it. And everybondy (er nobody) will be happy.

Unfortunately, everything George and Nancy and Harry need to really stick to each other in the media. It is all very tiresome. Politics as usual.

I feel that poor children should have the right to health care but isn't that what we have welfare for? If every child or young adult from a family that makes up to 83,000 a year is covered, how many people will that be? My husband and I make 45,000 a year. We are fortunate enough to have insurance. So what that means is we will pay for our private insurance, and the insurance of families who make almost double what we do! I find that outragous. SCHIP needs to be improvised if it is going to be passed. The yearly income needs to be drastically decreased, and the age needs to be dropped to primary school age children (K-12). If a child drops out of school, is kicked out of school or for some reason is not in school, they should not be eligable. Wasn't that the primary intent of "no child left behind", kids staying in school.

That is exactly my point James. True fiscal conservatives do not believe in handing over vast resources the way we do with Medicare. President Bush just expanded Medicare to add a prescription benefit. Even without this bloated new benefit Medicare is on track to insolvency in the near future. Gen-X folks such as myself are going to be left with scraps after contributing a lifetime of higher earnings into the pool.

The responsible thing to do is to means-test people for Medicare. There are PLENTY of seniors who have pensions, 401K, investment incomes, etc. People like to think that all seniors are eating cat food but that is far from the truth. Those that can afford to have higher Medicare premiums and deductibles should do so.

I doubt there is a Republican out there that would speak the truth and alienate the largest voting block out there….yes, seniors. These seniors feel "entitled" to free health care. Ummm, why?

Yet the Republican President who expanded the biggest social program we have also has the audacity to say that he doesn't want to federalize health care. GIVE ME A BREAK

As the baby boomers suck up more of the resources for health care in this country we are going to be forced to pit younger generations against older generations. We cannot go on giving and giving and giving freebies to seniors while saying "no" to others.

Posted By R.Jones, Marion, MA : October 17, 2007 7:56 pm

—–

Good Heavens - do you not even see what you are saying?? Free healthcare to Seniors (retired - no income - no significant tax resource). Free healthcare for ALL kids (young, not employed, not a source of tax revenue).

WHO PAYS??? - Only the people in the middle - actually working!

Sorry - this country is acting like spoiled brats. Hearing the word "NO" the libs fall on the floor kicking and screaming!

How many of you parents would turn over the financial reigns of your household income over to your teenagers to control?? THATS what America is doing (letting those that don't work, that don't economically contribute the significant portion of the country's income (taxes) in control of the purse strings).

Read my lips: N - O

listen sheeple…your congress persons pay nothing (nada for the illegals, who also pay nada) for health insurance…they want you to think they REALLY care…P.S. his title is El Presidente Jorge Bush, not president bush

Funny thing is that Medicare is the biggest socialized medical program out there. Many middle class and wealthy seniors get free hospitalization and nearly free doctors visits in addition to a newly added benefit of subsidized prescription coverage.

Not sure why everyone is so paranoid about socialized medicine when WE ALREADY HAVE IT FOR SENIORS! And not just the poor ones but the rich ones too. God forbid we want to provide uninsured children a shard of the same fat benefits we allow seniors. insured children a crack at subsidized coverage

As the baby boomers suck up more of the resources for health care in this country we are going to be forced to pit younger generations against older generations. We cannot go on giving and giving and giving freebies to seniors while saying "no" to others.

CNN OPINION POLL - same one used for all of todays articles:

Hillary trouncing Obama (1212 participants)

American's Supporting Illegals Staying (1212 participants)

American's Supporting SCHIP (1212 participants)

The marigin of error is 6.5% (that's HUGE in the world of polling). For each of these various topics - you get the same ideological result (Pro Hillary, Pro Illegal Immigrant, Pro Free Healthcare).

A biased poll for a biased network!

SHAME ON YOU, CNN

….."The Bush administration has decried the spending increase primarily supported by Democrats as unnecessarily subsidizing middle-income people as part of Democrats' "goal of government-run health care for every American."

The poll was conducted on October 12-14, 2007 with a sample size of 1,212 adult Americans and a margin of error of +/- 3 points.

Are these the same 1,212 who thought Less than a third want all illegal immigrants out ?

Who did they poll - illegal immigrants?

I'm ashamed to even call George Bush our President. To think the billions of dollars going to an unwarranted war in Irag could be used to provide insurance for our children. This president's legacy will most certainly be one of a "War Monger"!! Please, Senator Clinton, stay on course so that these last 7 years can be put to rest in January 2009.

To those that don't know… SCHIP has been around for awhile. It provides important coverage for low income children that can't afford health insurance. What this bill in congress is for is to supplement SCHIP's funding to meet it's current funding needs. Lately, it has been lacking enough funds to cover it's current applicants and has had to turn away many children in need. This bill meets those needs and covers those children they have had to turn away.

While Bush has been turning a blind eye to the domestic problems of our children, the democrats in congress have negotiated this bill to meet the needs of an important program. People are mislabeling this as an attempt to expand government in healthcare, but I feel its simply supporting those that desperately need our support in this country.. our children.

Telling it like I see it,
Wynter

If the president had not walked away from the table he would have been part of the process and he wouldn't be stating things that aren't accurate about the bill. I support an override.

No Demwit - it wasn't the CHIPS Tv show… The question was do Americans like eating "chips" while watching their favorite TV "program".

When the majority of Americans don't know the name of the US Surgeon General (or that the Dept even exists) but some how thinks they're intelligent enough to comment on complex health legislation working its way through Congress…. the poll is meaningless!!

Do most Americans realize CHIPS already covers low-income families?

Do most Americans understand the stated source of revenue is Tobacco tax (until that revenue falls short and then the balance will have to be collected through higher taxes)?

Do most Americans realize this program covers certain families up to $83,000/year income and individuals up to age 25??

Do most Americans realize the long-term cost of this program after illegal immigrants are granted amnesty and ALL their kids qualify?

Do most Americans understand how much MORE troubles we'll have with illegal immigration by these give-away programs (Amigo - make it into America, have a baby, and presto - free healthcare and citizenship)?

Yeah - keep up the good work, CNN, on your opinion polls!!

Then this just goes to show that either 1) the majority of Americans are uninformed, 2) lazy liberals on CNN speed dial, or 3) both. I'm betting on number 3.

Wake up America. A 25 year old is not a child and an annual income of $83,000 is not poor. If this program is truly intended to cover POOR children then make it for POOR children. Otherwise, pack your bags and leave America to those of us of actually work for a living and don't expect government handouts.

Ron Paul in 2008!

Does anyone know where I can get the actual poll data?

Since no one polled me, I hereby declare that this bill is supported by 0% of Americans.

*Sarcasm*
Oh wow this SCHIP program sounds amazing: the government provides free health insurance!
*Sarcasm Ends*

Just so everyone knows… it's not free. Even though the government would pay for it, WE pay the taxes that the government would use to make SCHIP possible. Also, knowing Congress, there would be some earmarking of funds in the bill, so it would actually be a little bit MORE expensive than having everyone buy their own health insurance. In short: SCHIP is bad since it's government providing something that people can more cheaply obtain on their own.

s-CHIP?

So this has nothing to do with Intel or the Pringles Man?

My bad.

Oh……, is that what that pollester was asking about.., I thought he was referring to the old CHIPS TV show..

therealist is correct.

We use to see a CNN/Gallop poll but Gallop pulled out because of CNN's unscientific(corrupt) polling techniques. Look it up..

There has been a complete failure to admit that the ability of a $80k income family to receive benefits under the SCHIP program would have to be on a petition to the Administration to exceed the normal bounds. I suppose the reason the Administration is using the higher number is because of the high number of exemptions they have given states under the current plan.

My question is, why is the Pro-Life party not Pro-healthcare to support the life of the children that must be protected in the uterus? Pop them out, then see if they survive? Seems like there are a few on the Right that need to reread the life of Christ and see where his example leads them on the care of children and the sick.

Raising the bar on incomes eligible for the program simply helps sustain a diminishing middle class, who pay most of the taxes anyway. Two points I'd like to make: seriously ill children even with health insurance (typically HMO) can still incur enough non-covered expenses to rapidly drain a family of savings, and parents of retirement accounts. Reducing a middle-class family to a lesser level or bankruptcy just moves the tax burdens to different places to support them. 2- Healthy children have a better chance at being healthy adults, so once again it's just a matter of a tax burden shift- if we don't help our children early on, we may have reduced the capacity to provide for themselves as an adult.

Most Americans are too stupid and/or lazy to actually research and read a piece of pending legislation. They prefer to have it dumbed down to them in the form of some fear-mongering soundbite "Bush is against health care for children!!!"

Get real people. If you continue to buy into the anti-Bush spin without having any clue what the SCHIP legislation actually does, then you deserve whatever idiotic leader(s) you choose to elect.

If you got off of your rears and researched this bill, you would realize that it is underfunded after 2011. That funding for SCHIP will drop to 65% of where funding is right now. How do you think this gap will be made up?

Do you think people will lose their free taxpayer funded health insurance??? Of course not. Instead taxes will be raised.

By the way, Hillary Clinton and Charles Schumer just porked One Million Dollars in tax money to pay for a museum at Woodstock!! This project was developed by a Republican who donated tens of thousands of dollars to Schumer and Clinton's campaign coffers. How ironic that you Bush-bashing morons don't realize that Clinton and Schumer can find taxpayer money to waste on idiot projects developed by campaign contributors while bashing Bush for keeping children from getting health care!!

By the way, please explain why the Democrat controlled congress can't pass any piece of legislation outside of a minimum wage hike, and why their approval rating according to Pew Research is 11%. That one third Bush's.

Love the idiots posting today.

It is IMMORAL that healthcare as practiced in this country is "for -profit." Basically right now if you are poor you are dead!

Yep, that's Amerikkka!

I guess the majority is always right…just when the majority supported legalized slavery, or supported genocide against Native Americans, or the internment of Japanese-Americans, or the current Gulf War at its beginning.

Our founding fathers knew that majority was not always right, which is why we have a republic and an electoral college.

I find it curious that the conservative Christian, pro-life party is neither. Denying health care to needy children is not Christ-like and not caring if a child has health care after it is born is hypocritical. Adding the psychological molestation of children who participate in a pro-SCHIP ad campaigns by "outing them" to the point of getting death threats is despicable.

The House votes 265-159 in favor of SCHIP

The Senate votes 67-29 in favor of SCHIP

These are facts "the realist". A mojority of Republicans and Democrats voted in favor of this bill. The Seante already has the votes to override George Bush's veto and the House is only shy 15 votes to override. Try breaking down these percentages and you will note that they significantly exceed the Poll numbers that you assume are one more conspiracy. Please please please - go home - lock you doors, curl up in the fetal position and rock yourself to sleep listening to Fox News - your final island of safety which is the only "truthful" news station left.

For all those people who think $480K is a lot of money. $80K maybe middle class in the sout and midwest but try living out of $80K in Californial, New York or Washington D.C. People live in those areas will tell you it close to poverty. If you think its so much money than why do the congressmen and senators who live in Washington DC and keep voting themselves a pay raise even though they already make $162K a year. I can tell you because they know you can't live out that small amount of money in those areas.

Why is Bush complaing that this bill costs too much? Does any realize that the Medicare bill passed a couple years explicity prevents the government from "shopping around" for the best prices on prescription drugs? The Veterans Administration does and saves taxpayers millions of dollars each year. I don't like to pay taxes but when my house is on fire, someone is breaking into my house, the roads are horribly congested, I'm glad I do. I am tired of billions for defense and nada for child health care, education, taking care of the elderly. When you cut taxes, you cut services. As simple as that!!

why keep saying $35b instead of only $7b a yearthe cost of 5days war in Iraq.now republican can you over ride the veto????

Take it from someone who knows, this bill is worth the cost. My middle class family had college funds for my three siblings and I and retirement plans for themselves. When I got cancer at 15, all of that disappared. The hospital where I was treated saw many similar cases, and I watched other families suffer through similar ordeals.

How dare anyone say this program is a waste or a bad idea. How dare you fail to consider the well being of other human beings in favor of saving on your taxes.

Here's another great informational site (this one is nation-wide):

http://www.easterseals.com/site/PageServer?pagename=OPA_SCHIP_facts

Man I'm really glad I'm not conservative. It must be so hard to be a conservative these days with your leader constantly making himself look like a total clown.

Posted By Curtis, Indiana : October 17, 2007 1:07 pm

—

LOL - yeah, you get to be proud of YOUR leaders: Nancy Pelosi (impeachment off the table), Harry Reid (more concerned about fighting Rush than meaningful legislation), with the heart & soul of your party being represented by wackos like Cindy Sheehan and Code Pink!

Gosh, how can I join such a prestigious organization? Perhaps making an illegal contributions to Hillary will qualify me???

Do you know how many uninsured children are in Pennsylvania? Do S-CHIP participants pay premiums? Who runs S-CHIP (hint: What does the "S" stand for)?

There's no need to trust politicians or polls. Get the facts about S-CHIP:

ccf.georgetown.edu/schipdocs/states/PASCHIP_FactSheet-1.pdf

Unfortunately 61% or more are uninformed and think they can get something for nothing.

Sorry dems, its not going to work.
Try a less partisan approach next time if you really want to help poor children..

Headline should read: "Majority of Americans have no idea what SCHIP is."

therealist - Care to provide any examples of those "corrupt polling techniques"?

According to Republican Senators like Grassley, and Hatch the Adm. was "dialed in", and changes put forth by the Republicans and the Adm. were taken into account in this bi-partisan bill.
Dumbya, and his hysterical fear-mongering (the socialists are coming, the socialists are coming) apologists are wrong once again on another vital issue for this great nation.

This is about health insurance for those that don't have it!

Compassionate conservative? Yeah right!!

The Republicans will pay at the polls for this moral and political blunder!

At $80,000/year, a family would pull in around $6,000/mo after taxes.

The average cost of treating childhood cancer for one month without insurance is $7393.25.

The expansion of prescription drug coverage under medicare by the Republicans carries a price tag of $400 billion over the next ten years.

Until we have a better solution for controling our healthcare crisis, I suggest we protect our children. Maybe they can solve these issues before we're bled out of every last penny in our old age by healthcare costs.

The government has built in checks and balances. The President is the president!! Thats who "We The People" elected to be our president. The government under the president is there to support and keep policy in line with the ideals of "We The People", …who by the way, elected the republicans to run the country, for those who havn't figured it out yet,if you dont like it impeach the President. Untill then the President is still the president. Unfortunately, when the Democratic party won a few seats in the house and congress, which, by the way for those who dont understand, is a supporting role for our government, they think that every issue is unnegotiable and now warrants a "Coup De Ta", by standing in the way of our government business. Its OK to tell the boss you dont like the way he does things. When he then takes your advice, but decides to do things his way….Thats his perogative, HE'S THE BOSS. (put into that position by "We The People". Stop holding our government entities hostage just because you want things your way(as if we dont know who I am talking about….democrats. In most countries that would be TREASON, and punishable by death. Maybe we need to change some laws to hold our elected officials responsible.

Stop wasting your tim eon this polls. Majority of American also oppose the war in its current form. Nothing has happened on that. Majority of American oppose G. Bush.

Find another story.

There are over 300 million Americans. 1,212 people were polled.

Majority of Americans, huh? Riiiight.

Good strategy realist: when you don't like the result, try to discredit the data gatherer. The good news is that a majority of Americans DO realize that helping out those who are less fortunate is not only morally right, but beneficial for society as a whole.

If that pollster would have asks those same people if they had ever heard of SCHIP before the call I would bet that 95% of those polled would have said no. The bottom line is that Americans are uninformed and don't care, so most political polls come with loaded questions that mislead the uniformed american public.

Fudning for the SCHIP increase would come from raising the tax on tobacco. The demographics of smokers is primarily made up of lower middle class adults.

Let's tax poor people to pay for health care for rich kids from households earning $83,000 a year.

Nice plan Dems.

By the way, after 2011 funding for SCHIP drops to 65% of where it is right now. Any guesses on where that new shortfall will be made up??? How about higher taxes on smokers and non-smokers.

Weak on Defense and Pro-Tax, Democrats at their best.

Sustain the veto Repubs and send Pelosi back to the drawing board.

As one thousands of the smokers that is funding a similar program in Texas, I fear either the people that were polled are sheep or the Dems sold them a bill of goods or both.

I agree with spinstopper - with a salary of $40k I look forward to my new low-income tax-bracket refund.

let's go ahead and override the veto…i live in the war zone in san diego and it's impossible to go to a hospital or emergency ward and find anyone who speaks english..the illegals are guaranteed FREE medical care, why not u.s. citizens…hillary and teddy and el presidente jorge bush will help pay for all of us

I'm sorry, but do you people have any concept of statistics? If you do, what's wrong with the poll? Even your precious Fox polls have credibility with me if they're done correctly.

Secondly, it's always the same people complaining about the polls (therealist, Henry Tucker, etc.). Why do you people even bother trolling CNN if you hate it so much? You're just keeping their hit count up. I look at Fox's news and some conservative blogs, but I sure don't waste my time on their message boards.

Bush says the SCHIPS legislation passed by a Democratic Congress adds too much to the Fed. Budget Deficit(which was a surplus when he took office). But when a Republican Congress busted the budget for tax cuts for the wealthy & to finance a war he just had to have, then that was ok. The Republicans should change their symbol from an elephant to a hippo–as in hippocrite.

Apparently conservatives are perfectly fine with profit hungry insurance companies running our health care system. How is a double digit increase in my premium not considered a tax increase. Instead of getting it up the chizzle from the government, the working class is getting it up the chizzle from the insurance companies. Hurts either way.

When 61% of the people want something to be passed, it really ought to be passed.

Posted By Christian, Tampa FL : October 17, 2007 1:35 pm

In the 45 or so states that have voted against gay marriage, all have been overwhelmingly against it, so should we pass that into law as well?

Why do conservatives even BOTHER? If CNN is promoting a liberal agenda, why aren't they whining about it on the Fox Opinion Channel?

Therealist:

That's it…since the poll doesn't support your view, discount it as corrupt. This is how American's deal with things, and this is why things don't get done.

Why just cover children? Us older people need healthcare more than the young ones do.

Everyone should sign onto HR 676- Medicare for all- co-sponsored by Dennis Kucinich and John Conyers that would give REAL Universal, not-for-profit healthcare for ALL- children and adults alike.
We could pay for it using the tax dollars that would have been going to the corrupt insurance companies, who should have never gotten our healthcare put into their hands since their only interest is profiting from NOT giving healthcare.

At one time in this country's history, the majority of Americans supported slavery, genocide against the Native Americans, the internment of Japanese-Americans, the current Gulf War, etc, so is what the majority says always right?
Were our founding fathers wrong for preventing majority rule in our republic?

CNN/Opinion Poll - 1212 people.

LOL… noooooo, CNN doesn't have any agenda!

Didn't Hillary's shoe come untied? Aren't there more comments you could cover about Hillary from her appearance on "The View"? Can't you run ANOTHER article about Obama being Cheney's cousin or a Larry Craig's sex scandal???

Stand firm Republicans - don't over-ride the veto! Let the Democrats be the responsible party to usher in Socialism.

If the Democrats now see the middleclass as people who make between $80K - $250K…, then I will be expecting a MUCH larger tax refund this year.

If the veto is not overridden, then the actual representation of the electorate in the House can be called into question. When 61% of the people want something to be passed, it really ought to be passed.

A new CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll..

Well that’s enough for me. Reading polls that use corrupt polling techniques is not worth my time..

Majority of Americans also voted for Al Gore in 2000 but majority doesn't seem to rule anymore. What happened to democracy when whoever got the most votes, wins?

That's not a surprise, given the spin put on the story by the media (CNN included). Who will say "no" to the question "don't you want healthy children?"?

Well, that plus the fact that more and more Americans are simply interested in what they can get for free — in the case of SCHIP, health insurance.

It would be interesting what the results would be if the point was made that Congress wants to spend tax dollars on people earning 3x the poverty level and already covered by private health insurance.

Most will not approve when they find out that lower to middle class families will be giving out welfare to them. I am at the fringe of the $82K and call me cold hearted but I will take care of my own kids health insurance.

to start i dont like bush. however this is just an attempt by the dems to socialize everything. they want complete control of your day to day lives, and this was the start. CNN 1212 people do not reflect what the whole of america wanted. If I wanted to I could do a poll that would show the majority of people want to reestablish slavery, just need to ask the right people, kind of like CNN did. Im not rich, and i am still opposed to this. the govt cant run one program right, social security, immigration, the war, are just acouple of examples showing how these idiots cant do anything right. if i need treatment all i have to do is make an appointment, dems want all the power over the victims in the US and this is how they want to start socialism here. Go bush for having the testicular fortitude to veto this plan.

Heck yeah, I support the bill! If we got money to waste on Iraq, we certainly have the money needed to expand SCHIP.

CNN go poll people who arent registerd ligs, go ask people who dont want to socialize any part of healthcare because the idiots in washington cant seem to get out of their way. Govt run programs: immigration, doin great. wellfare, awesome. the war, hows that goin. all we need is for govt to be in charge of one more aspect of our lives. when will it stop, if the dems have it their way, it will stop when they have complete controll over you the victim. Im not rich, in fact im very poor, and yes im white, I dont want govt telling me when i can see a doctor. right now if i want to see one i just schedual an appointment. stop suing doctors everytime they say something you dont want to hear, and watch the price of healthcare go down.

I'd prefer my tax dollars go to pay for more healthy American children.

Bush would rather my tax dollars (and borrowed cash from foreign nations) go to pay for a war that has killed more Americans than all terrorist acts combined.

Since I don't get to choose how my tax dollars are spent, I guess for the time being they will continue to pay for American death.

Maybe when a Democratic president is elected, Congress can revisit SCHIP, and my money will go towards saving American children’s lives and promoting American children’s health.

Bush seems to have plenty of money to kill people in Iraq, yet no money for our children with medical needs. Shame!

EVERY CHILD LEFT BEHIND!

Good going, George.
AGAIN.

Man I'm really glad I'm not conservative. It must be so hard to be a conservative these days with your leader constantly making himself look like a total clown.

$80,000 sounds like a lot of money, but the reality is that if you are not making that money from a corporation, you may not have health insurance, and private insurance is very costly. A single friend of mine makes about $50,000, and she squeaks by. She has prescription coverage only, at $200/month, because full medical would be $700 just for her! There has to be a better way, and I'd be curious to know about some of the people he thinks this would cover…and what their lives are like. I doubt they live in huge homes, drive SUVs or take expensive vacations.
If there are abuses (Bush mentioned adult taking advantage) can't those loopholes be closed? Just seems like it's his same "my way or the highway" rhetoric. He says he wants to find a compromise, but he really means that Congress must capitulate totally to what the Decider has already determined is best for us. Makes my skin crawl!

Huh?? I think there needed to be some "qualifying" questions - i.e. what is SCHIP? What is the current funding of SCHIP…and who is covered? And the classic - how would you feel about a large goverment program that covers people up to age 25….and who make up to 83,000? (maybe they just called the list of far left bloggers with their heads in the sand??)

The diabolical republicans are showing their callous hearts. They will vote at their own peril to uphold the President's veto. I say, go ahead, you will pay the price for you arrogance Nov 08. Republicans are willing to allocate billions for Iraq but want to penny-pinch and parsimone on American children.

I think expanding the CHIP Program is a bad idea; it creates a larger burden on our taxes. Either make health-care universal or only provide it for those with very-low incomes. You can't spend money without having it be paid from somewhere. Think of this, would you be okay in having your taxes raised to pay for the SCHIP bill? I wouldn't, mostly because there are too many special interests attached to it; one including the building of a health care facility in Montana. How does that help the children of the nation as a whole, and not just Montana?

These are things that need to be settled before it should pass.

I don't really have a problem with it, considering most of our tax money goes to Iraqi knob polishers and investigating Senator Craig instead of to the people who need it. I suspect that the worst thing that could come of this is middle-income families getting their kids tested for health problems. Guess what, folks? Most kids could care less who the president is!