On Wednesday August 1, the U.S. House or Representatives passed the Children’s Health and Medicare Protection Act of 2007 (H R 3162) a bill "to extend and improve the children's health insurance program, to improve beneficiary protections under the Medicare, Medicaid, and the CHIP program." You can read the bill text here.
The bill passed 225-204. The roll call vote is here.
Republican Representative Dave Weldon voted against it. Why in the world would someone vote against expanding the number of children who are covered by health care?
I don't know about you, but I would rather not have to ask that question in the first place. It's time to kick Do-Nothing Dave out of office at the earliest opportunity.
On a related note, a new poll by CBS shows that the American people favor expanding health care to all children by an 84-11 margin. A large majority favor the program even if it means taxes are raised (this bill only raised taxes on cigarettes). Dave Weldon is out of touch with the American people and out of touch with his constituents.
It's no surprise that when asked which party they favored on the issue of health care, poll respondents favored Democrats over Republicans by a 62-19 percent margin.
Here's more on the bill from the Washington Post:
WASHINGTON -- House Democrats pushed through legislation Wednesday to add 6 million lower-income children to a popular health insurance program while making deep cuts in federal payments to Medicare HMOs, defying a veto threat from President Bush.
On a 225-204, mostly party-line vote, the House passed the legislation, which would add $50 billion to the decade-old State Children's Health Insurance Program and roll back years of Republican-driven changes to Medicare.
