McCain, Romney, Huckabee: A Third Term on Children's Health Care

January 23, 2008 -- Despite the support of more than 80 percent of Americans and the broad bipartisan support of the nation's governors, Congressional Republicans today blocked health care coverage for 10 million of America's low income kids. With all the Republican presidential hopefuls supporting Bush's veto of the children's health care bill, it's no wonder the American people are rejecting them and the idea of a third Bush term. [CBS News, 10/17/08]

"Today's vote against children's health care by Republican Congressional leaders is just the latest example of the stark differences between the Democratic and Republican candidates," said Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean. "If you want a president who supports fulfilling our moral obligation to provide health care for our kids, who will get us out of Iraq and work to get our economy back on track, vote for a Democrat. If you want to see a third Bush term that blocks health care for children, continues an endless war in Iraq and the reckless borrow and spend policies of the Bush Administration, vote for a Republican."

REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL HOPEFULS ONLY OFFER A THIRD BUSH TERM ON CHILDREN'S HEALTH CARE….

McCain Opposed Reauthorizing SCHIP and Providing Insurance For Millions of Uninsured Children. McCain voted against reauthorizing the State Children's Health Insurance Program for five years, expanding the program by $35.2 billion. [Senate Vote #307, 8/2/07]

Romney Would Veto Bill to Insure Children by Expanding SCHIP. Asked "If Mitt Romney were president today, would he veto the SCHIP bill as President Bush has threatened to do this week," Romney said: "Yeah. Yeah, I sure would. I'd veto it out of my belief that we should have every citizen insured. I put forward a plan in my state that gets every citizen insured….The right pathway to get everybody insured is to help people get private insurance. The SCHIP pathway is simply the wrong way. It's unfortunate the Democrats used this vehicle. It would have been far wiser to have a more comprehensive plan to have everybody insured." [Kansas City Star online, 10/01/07 http://primebuzz.kcstar.com/?q=node/7151]

Huckabee Called Democratic Plan Vetoed By Bush "Problematic." At an AARP forum, Huckabee said "That's problematic from both a budgetary standpoint and also philosophical for many people." In an ABC debate, he said "it's just not a good solution." [AARP Forum, 10/26/07; ABC Debate, 8/5/07]

Giuliani Supports Bush Veto on SCHIP. In an interview with CNBC, he said "I think then you have to veto it." [CNBC, 7/31/07, http://www.cnbc.com/id/20054352]

Source: DNC