The president will give a radio address today and announce that he will veto the State Children’s Health Insurance Program bill. Here’s his phony reasoning, and Sen. Grassley of Iowa’s response.

Dana Perino, the White House press secretary, said Friday, “It is preposterous for people to suggest that the president of the United States doesn’t care about children, that he wants children to suffer.”

Ms. Perino said the president had a policy difference with Democrats in Congress because he did not want “additional government-run health care, socialized-type medicine.”

Senator Charles E. Grassley, an Iowa Republican who helped write the bill, said he would reach out to House Republicans and urge them to override the veto.

“This bill is not socialized medicine,” Mr. Grassley said. “Screaming ‘socialized medicine’ is like shouting ‘fire’ in a crowded theater. It is intended to cause hysteria that diverts people from reading the bill, looking at the facts.”

The Dems are crafting a strategy to overcome the president’s veto. They have the votes in the Senate, but not in the House.

In an interview on Friday, the House Republican whip, Roy Blunt of Missouri, said there was “a 100 percent probability” that the House would sustain the president’s veto.

But, Mr. Blunt said, the coincidental timing of the vote on the child health bill and the request for money in Iraq “was not helpful.”

The Dems appear to be 20 votes short of an override.

Ms. Pelosi called Mr. Bush on Friday and said she was praying he would sign the bill.

But Mr. Blunt said: “I bet she’s praying for him not to sign it. The bill is all about politics. It’s pretty good politics for the Democrats.”

It’s excellent politics for the Democrats, but the real issue is health care for children. Here is the strange reasoning of one Republican for why he cannot oppose the president.

Democrats said they would also focus their efforts on Republicans like Representatives Timothy V. Johnson of Illinois, John R. Kuhl Jr. of New York, Thaddeus McCotter of Michigan and H. James Saxton of New Jersey.

Mr. McCotter said he was a big supporter of the child health program, but would vote to uphold the president’s veto, even if critics ran television advertisements against him.

Under the bill, the federal excise tax on cigarettes would be increased to $1 a pack, from the current 39 cents.

“I vowed never to raise taxes on anybody, no matter how disliked they might be,” Mr. McCotter said in an interview. He said he would rather be voted out of office than go back on his promises to constituents.

Rep. McCotter is a ‘big supporter’ of the program but he doesn’t support paying for it because he made a promise not to raise taxes…like ever.

Your braindead Republicans at work. I predict that at least 4-5 congresspersons lose their jobs over this vote. Here’s why.

Graeme Frost, 12, will deliver the Democratic response to President Bush’s radio address today. After an accident, Graeme received care through the Children’s Health Insurance Program.

As Tom Friedman would say, ‘Suck on that’.

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