Colt Roan
Staff Writer 

   President George W. Bush only vetoed three bills prior to the child insurance bill he vetoed not too long ago. The first, blocking expansion of federal research for embryonic stem cells, took him over a year in office. Second, he vetoed a spending bill that would add mandatory troop withdrawal and the third vetoed a bill that would expand federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. This most recent veto has caused more outcry than all three of the others put together.

   Democratic majority leader Harry Reid said that it was “a heartless veto”.  It should come as no surprise to anyone that the Democrats would paint Bush as a heartless monster. Hiding the truth and exaggerating the flair, our liberal media has not accurately disclosed the reason behind his action. Instead, they show clips of Nancy Pelosi and little children all around the Capitol, and have numbers estimated in the millions that make it seem Bush single-handedly deprived children of sufficient healthcare. This is all far from the truth.

   First, it is not written anywhere that it is the government's responsibility to provide healthcare for any of its citizens. The debate still happens. It is a huge privilege so many Americans have so much access to free healthcare already. It is a sad and scary thing when we start believing nothing is too much. That is the quickest way to bankrupt a country.

   We shouldn’t forget how much farther along we are than so much of the rest of the world in our healthcare system. In the news we hear the Canadian and English systems being touted all of the time, but how often do you hear we have the most quality healthcare in the world? We have the greatest doctors in the world. We have millions of Americans (including children) receiving free healthcare. This cannot be overshadowed by the gloom and despair so redundantly fed to us everyday by the media.

   Second, Bush actually desires to increase spending for children whose families can’t afford coverage. The news stations would hardly even think about giving him that credit. In his letter to Congress, he states his support for a 20 percent increase for the State Children's Health Insurance Program (S-CHIP). The administration has pushed for this since February, but the Democrats demand it is not enough and insist on pushing us closer to socialized healthcare.

   The bill proposed by the Democrats would give, GIVE, healthcare to families earning $83,000. If people can’t see the problem with this, then they need to rethink capitalism and how it made this country the leader of the world. Not only would it cover families that make such high earnings, it would bring people away from the private healthcare sector. One out of every three people who receiving S-CHIP would move out of the private and into the public. The President wants to stick with the original S-CHIP and decrease the number of children without healthcare that way.

   Third, this would raise taxes on American citizens. We have seen the benefits the tax cuts have on our economy. The unemployment rate hit all-time lows and the DOW stock market hit all-time highs. The Democrats again want to raise taxes on us in order to provide a pre-socialism healthcare package that goes against the fabric of our nation, called capitalism.

   Bush shows incredible fortitude and foresight on this. Yet the media and left wing paint him as a heartless man detached from the common people. In the face of extreme ridicule and bad publicity he is sticking to his guns. He is following his convictions and not settling for something he knows is not good for the country, though it sounds good to the ears.

   The Democrats can try all of the heart string mechanisms they want. They can make it seem he isn’t even considering their “plan of salvation,” but I for one see through their guise. They are vote seeking. It is getting close to election time, and they know they have a man in office who would veto this political contraption because he has so much integrity.

   They think they can use this to demonize the Republicans and win votes. And you know what? It will probably have an effect on many people. Hopefully many people will see the truth and understand the character of the man that is leading our country and have pride he won’t allow such a thing to lead us down a slippery slop of socialism and more government spending.

   Bush is trying to increase the amount of free healthcare to the children who really need it. But the Democrats have asked for way too much so they can say they are the true champions of the little poor, helpless and sad children. Again, we see them getting in the way of true progress. If they could reach a compromise on the original increase and work from there, millions of children could receive coverage.

   One day a generation will see the greatness of George Bush, but until that day I hope people will dig deeper to see the truth. The man does care about children; he does want needy kids to have proper healthcare. But he wants to do it in a better way. In a way that won’t jeopardize our system, bring people out of the private healthcare sector and wont’ raise taxes. Now how monstrous and heartless does that really sound?