"Bush Surging, not fading, as tenure's end nears", a column in TheHill.com by former Cheney deputy assistant and former special assistant to President Bush, Ron Christie. Mr. Christie lays out the case that President Bush's policies have reached fruition in the past few days. Here are some examples:

1. Economic Growth

• New data released last week showed that America added 94,000 jobs in November 2007 — capping a remarkable 51 straight months in which jobs have been created in our economy. Despite partisan claims that the economy is soft, more than 8.3 million jobs have been created since August 2003 and unemployment remains low (4.7 percent). America remains open for business.

Stem cells

• the president’s resolve and strength to draw a moral boundary line to protect innocent unborn life has been vindicated. scientists announced last week they could produce an embryo-free way to produce genetically matched stem cells. OR
• the president’s decision to draw a bright moral line against destroying human life while providing federal dollars for the first time to stimulate stem cell research has proven successful. The silence in the media about this remarkable development has been deafening.

Iraq

• the central government of Iraq has reached its 2007 budget revenue target of $30.2 billion,derived mostly from oil revenues.
• Lt. General Ray Odierno has reported that the has been a 23-week decline — nearly six months — in insurgent deaths and attacks upon Iraqi civilians.
• In Mosul, the airport opened for the first time in 14 years for commercial aviation flights. In a region of the country long associated with violence, Iraqi Airlines is now open for business

"Political stability long thought to be an elusive dream is becoming a daily reality across Iraq.From the surge in Iraq, vindication with his stem cell position and strong economic development on the home front, President George W. Bush has hit his stride and is surging rather than limping into his last year in office. For those who have counted him out, the president remains resolute, perhaps comfortable in the knowledge that history, rather than bitter partisans in Washington, will favorably reflect on his two terms in office for waging an effective war against terrorism while demonstrating capable stewardship and remarkable domestic accomplishments during a time of war."

I would add that President Bush's newly found veto pen has given the Republican party an opportunity to become the budget hawks they used to be. He has only used it 7 times in as many years. Today, he vetoed the latest S-CHIP bill for the following reasons:

"This bill does not put poor children first, and it moves our country's health care system in the wrong direction," Bush's statement said. "Ultimately, our nation's goal should be to move children who have no health insurance to private coverage, not to move children who already have private health insurance to government coverage."

More chinks in current S-CHIP bill or H.R. 3963.

A new study by the Heritage Foundation's Robert Rector demonstrates how the new S-CHIP bill increases illegal immigrants access to Medicaid and undermines the Welfare Reform Act. Michelle Malkin takes the finding a step further,and I agree, that even though the bill contains a category (Title VI Section 605) entitled, " No Federal Funding for Illegal Aliens," there's no provision written into the bill to check the citizenship status of applicants for the S-CHIP program. Essentially, Section 605 is a red herring the Democrats can point to and say the bill doesn't give benefits to illegal aliens. Nevermind that the rest of the bill relaxes identification procedures for S-CHIP Rector's analysis points out that HR 3963:

1. weakens the evidentiary and document standards governing entry into the Medicaid program, thereby making it easier for illegal immigrants to fraudulently obtain benefits; and
2. overturns the limitations on immigrant use of Medicaid enacted in the 1996 welfare reform law by gutting the administrative procedures used to determine immigrant eligibility, thereby readily permitting immigrants to receive benefits for which they remain legally ineligible.

Remember that under current law, illegal immigrants are eligible for:

• emergency medical services funded through the Medicaid program but are not eligible for normal benefits through Medicaid or the State Children's Health Insurance Program (S-CHIP).
• In addition, according to the provisions of the 1996 welfare reform law, legal immigrants are not eligible for normal Medicaid and S-CHIP benefits for the first five years they reside in the United States.

"He Hates These Cans."Another movie quote applicable to the S-CHIP debate. Anytime there is a debate over health insurance, the standard line used against opponents of the bill is, "They Don't Care About The Kids." It is just as stupid and silly as when Steve Martin used it in _____(bonus points if you can name the movie).

On Tuesday, Oregon voters overwhelmingly (3-2) voted against Measure 50 which would have made their children's health plan universal. Let's look at the plan and see if we can learn anything from its failure. The plan would have:

• broaden eligibility for Oregon's "Healthy Kids" S-Chip program to 300% of the federal poverty level.
• allowed all families to opt in, regardless of income, though higher earners wouldn't get subsidies.
• paid for the expansion with cigarette taxes, which would increase to $2.02 from $1.18 a pack

Sounds familiar, right. You think that Oregon would have learned something from the S-CHIP disaster proposed by Congress this year. They didn't. The legislator who initially proposed the measure blames it on Big Tobacco. What is interesting is the comments section below the story. Most of the comments I read were concerned about the same things most Conservatives were about S-CHIP; taxing vices, higher taxes, and paying for health insurance for the middle class. Here's more Portland,Oregon coverage and in the StatesmanJournal.

SCHIP Part II cont.

Michelle Malkin has the latest roll call on the Senate passing 64-30 another version of the children's health insurance program which will be vetoed by the President.

The Senate acted after the bill was approved by House of Representatives last week in a 265-142 vote that was short of the two-thirds majority needed to overturn a veto by Bush. Bush vetoed an earlier version of the bill that the House last month failed to override. The bill would provide $60 billion in funding for the program over five years, compared with the current $25 billion five-year funding level. The tobacco tax increase, raising the tax on cigarettes by 61 cents to $1 per pack, would cover the added cost.

Senator Jim DeMint applauds the benefits of a compromise bill offered by Mel Martinez.

Rather than expand the government-run SCHIP program to cover middle-income children in homes making more than $80,000 a year (which will include over 70% of America's children), our plan reauthorizes SCHIP to ensure poor children continue to receive health care. The plan goes further to tackle the problem of the uninsured by providing a tax credit to middle class families for their children's health insurance.
This would allow families to purchase health plans for their kids that they choose, rather than being handed a one-size-fits-all Washington-run plan.

Another benefit of this approach is that unlike the Democrat's SCHIP proposal, our plan would not force children off private insurance and onto government plans. By turning patients into shoppers we will inject more choice and competition into the health care market resulting in more competitive prices for health care premiums. All told, the tax credit approach provides health care to 10.5 million children whereas the Democrat SCHIP plan forces 1.2 million kids onto government rolls. Through this innovative and (free market)approach we offer better coverage to far more.

SCHIP Fun. "You know, for kids."
(bonus points if anyone can tell what Coen Bros. movie that line came from) Hat tip to HOT AIR.


This SCHIP never ends. Ridiculously apparent item of the day= a children's health bill dependent on an increase in tobacco use. Only our Congress. More people smoking = more people needing medical care. What could go wrong? The Heritage Foundation has a list of problems associated with making this bill dependent on smokers. The most obvious is that the Surgeon's General have been trying to get people to quit smoking since 1960. The others are;

• tobacco tax disproportionately burdens low-income Americans, lacks long-term stability, and ultimately results in significant shifting of health care costs onto others.
• With the number of smokers already declining, a tobacco tax would further reduce the number of smokers, thereby eroding the funding source.
• To produce the revenues that Congress needs to fund SCHIP expansion through such a tax would require 22.4 million new smokers by 2017.

Check out the Heritage charts, they are really cool.

Week in Review

• New docs provide further questions on the integrity of TNR "Shock Troops" author and article.
• S-CHIP Part II
• DREAM Act defeated.
• Judge Southwick is finally confirmed to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. Fred Thompson sums up the judge's qualifications;

His opponents do not question Judge Southwick’s qualifications to sit on the federal appeals court. Indeed, they cannot. Judge Southwick served on the Mississippi Court of Appeals from that court’s very inception in January 1995 through December 2006. Prior to serving as Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Division, from 1989 to 1993, he was in a general civil private practice for 12 years. He’s taught law as an adjunct professor at Mississippi College School of Law since 1998. He’s also served his country in Iraq, fulfilling his National Guard duty as Deputy Staff Judge Advocate from August 2004 to July 2005, and then as Staff Judge Advocate until January 2006. Even the American Bar Association, which often treats conservative judicial nominees unfairly, unanimously gave Judge Southwick the institution’s highest possible rating.

Cloture vote 62 yeas. Final vote 59 yeas. The Ds from red states who voted no (and also voted no on cloture):
Up in 2008:Landrieu (D-LA)Baucus (D-MT)Rockfeller (D-WV)
Not up in 08:Casey (D-PA)Nelson (D-FL)Reid (D-NV)Webb (D-VA)Tester (D-MT)Salazar (D-CO) (but voted yes on cloture).

• Rangel releases "the mother of all tax increases." Via Ways and Means Committee Ranking Member Jim McCrery: This is the largest individual income tax increase in history. The bill will add a 4% surtax on Americans earning more than $150,000 a year ($200,000 for couples). That is on top of the scheduled expiration of the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts. So, under Democrats’ plan, over the next few years, the individual income top tax rate in the United States will rise from 35% to 44%. See below for more commentary on the proposal:

1. Raisign taxes is an accomplishment?- Rep. Patrick McHenry
2. Larry Kudlow
3. WSJ Editorial

The S-CHIP hits the fan part II? or III?
background here.

via Michelle Malkin.
The House passed a revised children’s health proposal Thursday,265-142, but not by the two-thirds margin that supporters will need if President Bush vetoes the measure as promised. The vote is still 7 shy of overcoming a Bush veto. 14 GOPers were unavailable to vote, a majority of those were in Southern California tending to their districts. GOP leadership questioned the timing of the vote with so many our of town. The rumors are that supporters of the bill had bough air time and ads aimed at GOPers who were in shaky districts and the vote had to take place today for those ads to be effective.