Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Obama Missed Critical Senate Vote on Children's Health Insurance

From Lavender Newswire: "This week was another key week in the battle to re-authorize and expand the vital S-CHIP program. After the Bush veto of the first S-CHIP re-authorization bill, it was extremely important for Congressional Democrats to let the President know that they aren’t backing down when it comes to providing access to health care for America’s children.

As you may know, on October 25th the U.S. House voted 265 - 142 to send another S-CHIP bill to the President’s desk. Yesterday, the U.S. Senate followed suit and voted 64 - 30 to send House Resolution 3963 to the White House for another anticipated Bush veto.

Over in the House, America’s children were 25 votes away from gaining increased access to health care. In the House, every Democrat save one voted for the revised S-CHIP bill. Over in the Senate, America’s children fell 3 votes short of overriding the Bush veto against their health and well-being.

Three votes, ladies and gentlemen; and one of those three votes could’ve been supplied by Senator Barack Obama of Illinois if……he had even bothered to show up and vote."