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The Bush Administration’s New Target: Uninsured Kids -- In These Times

The Bush Administration’s New Target: Uninsured Kids -- In These Times
The first battle in the war over universal health care has begun, with the Bush administration and its right-wing allies targeting bipartisan legislation to expand and reauthorize the under-funded State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). They’re doing so with a slick campaign comprised of lies, distortions and sloganeering that derides the proposed bills as paving the way for socialized medicine.

This blitzkrieg against uninsured kids should serve as a wake-up call for Democrats seeking major health care reforms. If President Bush and his spokesmen can tell the American public that, say, we invaded Iraq to stop a potential nuclear attack by Saddam, what’s to prevent them from fabricating falsehoods about a well-regarded program that currently provides coverage each month to 4 million low-income children—or bills that aim to reach about half of the nine million still-uninsured kids?

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