Editorial: Conservative compassion

Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2007 | 7:25 a.m.

Paying no attention to the hypocrisy of their position, some Republicans who profess to be pro-family and pro-life say they are doing the right thing by upholding President Bush's veto of a bill that would provide health insurance to 10 million uninsured children.

Although they wrap themselves in family values, many Republicans have exposed their true interests in lining up with the president against the expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program.

"This is a profoundly moral issue," Utah Republican Rep. Chris Cannon intoned, before adding, "but that doesn't mean the government should do it. Government isn't very good at doing some things, mostly because of rigidity."

This "profoundly moral issue" is really political, as these right-wing obstructionists, who claim to have enough votes to uphold the veto, have put the free market above the family. They are speciously calling the insurance program, which would expand coverage from 6 million children to 10 million over the next five years, socialized medicine and saying it would take children off private health insurance.

Adding to that, the far-right congressional critics, who ironically are fully insured on a government health plan, believe that only the poorest of the poor should qualify for help. These arguments are baseless. For instance, they fail to acknowledge, as the bill does, that health care costs have skyrocketed, and that those who would qualify under the bill include the so-called working poor - those people who work full time but can't afford health insurance.

This is the type of program the government should embrace. It takes care of people whom private insurance doesn't. It would help improve public health by giving children the opportunity to see doctors. It would also help private hospitals that lose money on patients who can't pay their bills.

It is shameful that the Republican Party would let its right-wing minority kill a plan that would do so much for the American families they profess to defend. So much for family values.