Bush is no Michael Jackson

So I saw that President Bush vetoed the most recent incarnation of a bill that would have provided health coverage to children. And he did so in the confident, decisive manner we’ve all become accustomed to with his administration…behind closed doors.

I’d like to say that I am surprised.

But alas, I am not.

Bush has a history of putting children on the back burner if it means a happier federal budget. But I’ll come back to his track record in a moment.

First off, I’d like to point-out that this was a health care bill that, although carrying a $30 billion dollar price tag, had bi-partisan support. Almost enough support to over-ride Bush’s veto, almost. So it wasn’t like Bush was circling the wagons for a show of Republican solidarity in preparation for the upcoming election year. It was simply the president doing what he does best, which is whatever he wants to do, regardless of the effect on America’s youth.

That can be read many ways, Bush doesn’t care about young people’s healthcare, or he doesn’t care about young people’s education as I’ll lay-out in a moment or he simply doesn’t care about young people period. Perhaps because they cannot vote or he expects to ship them off to various parts of the world in HIS war on terror.

Healthcare should be a right, and it pretty much is. If anyone was to stride into an emergency room in serious need of medical attention, you’d receive it. The problem arises when the bill comes. And any doctor will tell you that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. So why not allow kids to get regular medical attention, such as physicals?

The answer is that it would cost $30 Billion dollars. Which is roughly equal to how many months of fighting in Iraq?

Let’s look at education for another example of disregard for the welfare of America’s youth by the Bush administration. Some of you may remember the No Child Left Behind program. It was supposed to hold everyone accountable in order to allow our children to succeed in school and return America’s ailing education system to its previous “not broken” status.

But No Child Left Behind, much like the Patriot Act, allowed the Bush Administration to take a great idea and run amok. In 2001, the administration tried to cut back the Federal Free and Reduced Lunch Program, under the guise of No Child Left Behind. Citing numbers that stated the program was being misused, the administration wanted to look tough on any program that failed to pass muster. If getting tough on education meant kids went hungry, then so be it. They stated that the program was inefficient and that 20% or more of the children receiving benefits didn’t qualify.

In a classic misdirection that is the hallmark of the Bush Administration, the obvious point that 80% of the children on the program needed the food was overlooked. Which meant that 4 out of 5 children who were on the program actually qualified for the program. And I think most people would agree an 80% success rate is quite agreeable, especially for a government program.

Never mind the fact that taking food away from a child is one of the few proven items that harms development and prevents achievement in the classroom. How does it make sense to use a program, supposedly aimed and restoring the educational system, to hinder the ability of America’s youth to succeed in school?

But as has been the case for Bush, reason gives way to “The War on Terror” or “No Child Left Behind” or “Cowboy Diplomacy” or any other catch phrase that allows Bush to misdirect the American public and continue his bullish run though the proverbial china shop of American rights and civil liberties. We’ve already seen him secretly take away many rights we took for granted.

Now Bush is so emboldened, that he’s taken to removing food from the mouths of America’s youth and taking away their ability to visit the doctor.

Good thing we’re not a third world country or anything…