A sad day for children

  If anyone was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, it was George W. Bush.

He’s perfected his good ol’ boy persona, but there really is nothing to connect him to the common people. That’s the only reason I can come up with to explain why the president of the richest, most powerful nation on earth could veto a bill that would help millions of poor children with no access to health care.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said it best: “Never has it been clearer how detached President Bush is from the priorities of the American people. By refusing a bipartisan bill to renew the successful Children’s Health Insurance Program, President Bush is denying health care ot millions of low-income kids in America.”

And this was a bipartisan bill. Bush not only shafted those children, he stuck it to his own party. The GOP has been scrambling like mad to do damage control in the wake of the backlash this veto has unleashed, not out of concern for the children, but because voters might see the veto as heartless. Why would he do such a thing? Because the bozo just doesn’t get it.

Bush was born to extreme wealth, a measure of wealth most of us can’t even imagine. It was enough money to buy him out of the draft and into the National Guard, not to mention Yale and its Skull and Bones secret society.

His parents never had the crushing dilemma of deciding whether to buy medicine or groceries for their family. They didn’t have to lie awake at night, listening to little W cough, and worrying, worrying, worrying because they didn’t have enough money to take him to the doctor.

He himself had no such worries with his family. But there is something in Bush’s past that should have made him and the entire Bush clan more compassionate about other people.’s suffering. That was the death of his little sister, Pauline Robinson Bush, who was nicknamed Robin.

Little Robin died in 1953 at the age of 3 from leukemia. Before she died, her parents went on a sad and futile search for specialists back East who could help their daughter. It didn’t help, but at least they had the means to try to save her life. Far too many parents in the United States don’t have the money to seek the help of specialists, even if special medical care could save their child’s life.

There are so many reasons to ensure every single child’s health, regardless of income, race or religion. They are the future leaders of our country, and by making sure they have immunizations and regular checkups today, we can save untold amounts of money by preventing future health problems tomorrow.

As far as I’m concerned, Sen. Reid is a hero. It’s obvious he has his finger on the pulse of the American people. Not only is he leading an effort to stem the metastasizing onslaught of home foreclosures, he’s a staunch critic of that blowhard and prescription-drug kingpin Rush Limbaugh..

Our own U.S. Rep. Jack Kingston, on the other hand, is busy recruiting 50 co-sponsors for a House resolution, no less, to praise Limbaugh. What an awful waste of taxpayer’s money! I am utterly repulsed by the effort to praise someone who is as vile, hateful and repugnant as Rush Limbaugh. By the way, Kingston voted against the children’s health bill.

Reid is fighting to overcome Bush’s veto. The Senate approved the bill with enough votes to override the veto, but there weren’t enough votes in the House to override it. However, there’s still hope. If enough representatives change their minds, the veto can still be overridden.

This is where you come in. Phone, write or e-mail your representatives and tell them to support the Children’s Health Insurance Program. Let’s convince Jack Kingston he has something much more important to root for than Rush Limbaugh.

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