I Was Waiting for It (Updated) 1
Factcheck dissects Bush’s lies about SCHIP. Follow the link for the complete, reality-based analysis:
He said it “would result” in covering children in families with incomes up to $83,000 per year, which isn’t true. The Urban Institute estimated that 70 percent of children who would gain coverage are in families earning half that amount, and the bill contains no requirement for setting income eligibility caps any higher than what’s in the current law.
He also said the program was “meant to help poor children,” when in fact Congress stated that it was meant to expand insurance coverage beyond the poor and to cover millions of “low-income” children who were well above the poverty line. Under current law most states cover children at twice or even three times the official poverty level.
The president also says Congress’ expansion is a step toward government-run health care for all. It’s true that some children and families with private insurance are expected to shift to the government program. But the Congressional Budget Office estimates that such a shift is relatively low considering the number of uninsured these bills would reach.
All the lies.
They do get tiresome.
Addendum, 9/24/2007:
Steve has more.
September 23, 2007 at 1:27 pm
Evaluating whether a person is lying about what legislation will do is impossible until the legislation has taken effect.