WE REFUSE TO HAVE OUR KIDS "BUSH WACKED"

What do you do when you are being run out of town?

You get in the front and call it a parade.

President Bush, sensing an overwhelming veto override on the SCHIP bill, has now indicated his willingness to compromise in his weekly radio address. "If putting poor children first takes a little more than the 20% increase I have proposed in my budget for SCHIP, I am willing to work with leaders in Congress to find the additional money," he said. Bush has hinted he is open to a compromise but still has not made clear what he is willing to accept. He continued to describe the measure that he vetoed as "deeply flawed," contending that the congressional plan is "an incremental step toward their goal of government-run health care for every American," which he believes is "the wrong direction for our country."

Bush also said that six states project that they will spend more SCHIP money on adults than they do on children in this fiscal year. However, those states got federal permission, in many instances during the time Bush has been in office, to cover adults. The president urged both parties to come together to support a bill "that moves adults off this children's program."

The current law, which remains in effect while the debate about reauthorizing it continues, covers children in families earning up to $40,000 a year, about twice the federal poverty level. But some states received permission to extend eligibility to families with higher incomes, and the bill would authorize states to allow households with an income of about $60,000 a year to enroll their children in SCHIP.