STATE GOVERNMENTS AND CITIZEN ACTIVISTS SAY NO TO BUSH'S VETO OF HEALTH CARE FOR CHILDREN-- RALLY IN SAN DIMAS, CALIFORNIA

Last week Irwing and I trekked up the road apiece into David Dreier country for a meeting of the Foothill Democratic Club. Irwing took the photo above. The Democratic candidate to replace Dreier, who spends more time in his native Kansas City area than in his suburban L.A. district, is Russ Warner and you can see him in the middle of the picture. Unlike Dreier, Russ actually does live and work in the district and he's very much a grassroots candidate, whose kids went to public schools and whose personal and business life is completely tied to the fortunes of CA-26. Like most people in California, Russ was outraged that Bush has announced he will veto the new overwhelmingly popular reauthorization of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP).

I'm happy to say that state governments around the country have announced they will sue Bush-- so far Illinois, California, Maryland New Jersey, New Hampshire, Washington, New York, and Arizona have filed suit. That's awesome that some of the states, including one with a Republican governor, are not taking this lying down. But neither are some citizens.

A day or two after I spoke at the Foothill Democratic meeting I had a note from Russ Warner explaining how he would be joining out citizens of the district for a rally at the San Dimas office of one of the worst of the Republican opponents to SCHIP, Dreier. The rally is tomorrow (Tuesday, October 2) at 11am, and Dreier's district office is at 510 East Foothill Blvd., San Dimas, 91733. Russ is asking people to bring homemade signs.

"We cannot remain silent," he said at our meeting last week, "while David Dreier turns his back on our kids, leaving them unprotected without even basic health insurance coverage." He has continued to point out that Dreier has a long, long record of supporting rubber stamp policies of his party and of Bush even if they are detrimental to the residents of his district. Dreier represents bug Pharma, Big Tobacco, HMOs and George Bush, not the people of CA-26.

"As a result of this vote, hundreds of thousands of California families will likely lose health insurance for their children in the coming months. Currently 850,000 children in California receive health care coverage through the SCHIP program in California, called Healthy Families.

Taxpayers in the 26th Congressional District will have paid $1.3 billion for the cost of the Iraq War through 2007. For the same amount of money, health care could have been supplied to 149,373 children, according to the National Priorities Project.

If you can't make it to the rally but want to express your solidarity with Russ, keep in mind that Dreier is a crook who takes unbelievable amounts of money from big corporate interests and developers and polluters. He's one of the best financed incumbents anywhere in the country. Russ' campaign is being financed by grassroots supporters who have had enough of governmment-by-the-highest-bidder. If you want to help... you can do it here at our Blue America page.




UPDATE: DOES BUSH INTEND TO FLUSH THE GOP DOWN THE TOILET WITH HIM? THEY'RE NOT COMPLAINING

Today's Washington Post carries an OpEd by Sebastian Mallaby that points out the dilemma Republican congressmembers are facing.

President Bush has spent six-plus years not using his veto. In 2005, he became the first president since John Quincy Adams to complete a term in the White House without once standing up to Congress; he has since paused to interrupt this doormat act on only three occasions. But now his patience is exhausted, and he is spoiling for a fight. Congress has had the temerity to propose expanding health care for poor children.

Politically, this is crazy. The bill that Bush is poised to veto has bipartisan backing, and two-thirds of the public say they like it. But in policy terms the veto looks a little crazy, too. The bill would extend the State Children's Health Insurance Program, a successful initiative that Bush himself supports. A veto would be based on misleading statistics and an exaggerated faith in markets.

David Dreier is by no means the only Republican facing political extinction over this-- and a few, Dreier not among them, are smart enough to recognize it. Dreier has lied to his constituents that SCHIP is government-run, socialize medicine. That's a typical Dreier lie; the program is run and administered by private insurance and private physicians. Dreier and Bush and the Republican Party are just trying to rally their easily-alarmed and easily brainwashed base. It isn't working.