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SCHIP Override Coming On Thursday: We Need Your Help! |
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The vote to override Bush’s veto and pass healthcare legislation for kids is coming up on Thursday. Already, people have started changing their minds.
While the original SCHIP legislation passed with 265 votes in the House, about 25 votes short of the approximately 290 needed to override a veto, Nancy Pelosi says that Democrats are now just 13 votes short.
One of those who switched their votes was Baron Hill, a Bush Dog Democrat from Indiana. Blue America and BlogPac were all set to run an ad I designed (pictured at left) against Baron Hill asking him to switch his vote when word came through that he responded to constituent pressure and pledged to override Bush’s veto, saying:
However, providing healthcare for our nation’s children is simply too important to abandon. Therefore, even though I know the veto will be upheld, I will vote to override the President’s veto in an effort to again show my support for the program and desire to move towards a fairer bill.
I want to once again be very clear that I fully support the SCHIP program. Guaranteeing access to health insurance for all children is not only a worthy goal, but it is the right thing to do. In fact, I have consistently supported the SCHIP program during my previous terms in Congress, and recently voted to reauthorize the program through November 16th of this year.
Today, I finalized a similar full page ad to run in the Macon, Georgia Telegraph asking Jim Marshall, another Bush Dog (with a pretty awful record), to vote for SCHIP. The ad will run on Tuesday and hopefully Marshall will do what’s right.
To get this ad out, Blue America and BlogPac need to raise $10,000. They’ve raised over $1,600 in a couple hours so far. If you’d like to see Jim Marshall voting for SCHIP, please give any amount you can spare over at ActBlue.
Hopefully 12 other members of the House of Representatives will do what’s right as well by overriding Bush’s veto and funding this overwhelmingly popular and necessary program to provide healthcare for children. Of the 159 representatives who voted no, the following people have been singled out as more likely to change their vote:
Republicans
Robert Aderholt (AL-04)
Rodney Alexander (LA-05)
Michelle Bachmann (MN-06)
Roscoe Bartlett (MD-06)
Judy Biggert (IL-13)
Brian Bilbray (CA-50)
Gus Bilirakis (FL-09)
John Boozman (AR-03)
Ginny Brown-Waite (FL-05)
Steve Chabot (OH-01)
Barbara Cubin (WY-AL)
John Doolittle (CA-04)
Thelma Drake (VA-02)
Tom Feeney (FL-24)
Randy Forbes (VA-04)
Rodney Frelinghuysen (NJ-11)
Scott Garrett (NJ-05)
Kay Granger (TX-12)
Sam Graves (MO-06)
Robin Hayes (NC-08)
Dean Heller (NV-02)
Wally Herger (CA-02)
Kenny Hulshof (MO-09)
Tim Johnson (IL-15)
Rick Keller (FL-08)
Joseph Knollenberg (MI-09)
Randy Kuhl (NY-29)
Tom Latham (IA-04)
Thaddeus McCotter (MI-11)
Marilyn Musgrave (CO-04)
John Peterson (PA-05)
Thomas Reynolds (NY-26)
Peter Roskam (IL-6)
Bill Sali (ID-01)
Jim Saxton (NJ-03)
Tim Walberg (MI-07)
Greg Walden (OR-02)
Jerry Weller (IL-11)
Democrats
Bob Etheridge (NC-02)
Jim Marshall (GA-08)
Mike McIntrye (NC-07)
Gene Taylor (MS-04)
If you see your Representative on the list, give them a call. And if they fail to vote for healthcare for kids, hold them responsible next election.
Update: Digby has more.
The Jim Marshall ad appears to be missing the word “Democrats” after “220″ in the first paragraph. Has that been corrected?
Yes it is PeterB, but thanks for pointing it out!
Barbara Cubin is from Wyoming, not Wisconsin.
Updated, thanks SurferGurl!
Not gonna happen.
Gallup:
•A slim majority, 52%, agreed with Bush that most benefits should go to children in families earning less than 200% of the federal poverty level  about $41,000 for a family of four. Only 40% said benefits should go to families earning up to $62,000, as the bill written by Democrats and some Republicans would allow.
I sent this to Kay Granger of Texas:
Dear Congresswoman Granger:
Although not one of your direct constituents, I do live just next door to your district, attend church in your district, do much of my shopping in your district, and many of my friends and relatives ARE your constituents. I hope that this will cause you to hear me out.
SCHIP is important. My family consists of me (disabled), my husband (a full time student working on making a decent life for our children) and our three uninsured children. We do not collect welfare. We do not collect food stamps. We do not collect medicaid. Recently, we applied for CHIP and were declined, because we supposedly make too much money, even though we could not keep our children fed if it weren’t for food banks in the area supplying us with food each week. What little money we have goes to rent and utilities.
We don’t live high on the hog here. You know our area. Ponder is far from a rich town. Come on over to my place and visit and see my refrigerator and notice that my kids haven’t seen a doctor or a dentist in three years. That my eldest son is wearing eyeglasses that hardly work for him because the prescription is so out of date.
As one of many Texas families in your general area that really needs this legislation, I am asking you to consider changing your vote on SCHIP when veto override time comes. America’s kids deserve better than this, Ma’am. They surely do.
Sincerely,
Jenn McWhorter
Thank you Jenn! Please post back if you get a response. This kind of direct communication can really work sometimes.