Co-host Joy Behar continued on her many anti-Bush rants, this time about a health insurance initiative. Behar’s main source was noted left-wing partisan Paul Krugman.
JOY BEHAR: You know, they call themselves compassionate conservatives, right? Bush has just vetoed a bipartisan bill that would extend health coverage for 4.1 million children in this country. Now, that is not a compassionate conservative.
ELISABETH HASSELBECK: What was attached to the bill? I would just like to know that.
BEHAR: It was a bill that existed and he let it go, and now he's vetoing it.
HASSELBECK: I would like to investigate it.
BEHAR: Go ahead. Here it is. Paul Krugman, "New York Times."
[applause]
HASSELBECK: Well, a lot of the times– the reason why I ask is a lot of times people try to pass a bill and there are other things are attached that no one really ever hears about.
President Bush has not vetoed the bill they reference. It is still in the Senate and the administration has expressed their doubts. What Joy Behar neglected to disclose, and what Elisabeth Hasselbeck missed, is that the administration objects to the 61 cent increase in the cigarette tax.
Also, the Washington Times editorialized against the bill noting that it pays for children well into the middle class.
"The federal government is already paying for Medicaid and SCHIP but obviously people don't like the hassles or quality associated with it. So, rather than give both SCHIP- and Medicaid-eligible families the cash and the choice of signing up for private health insurance, Democrats want to increase SCHIP spending by $50 billion to cover families with incomes up to $83,000 a year."
The transcript is below.
JOY BEHAR: You know, they call themselves compassionate conservatives, right? Bush has just vetoed a bipartisan bill that would extend health coverage for 4.1 million children in this country. Now, that is not a compassionate conservative.
ELISABETH HASSELBECK: What was attached to the bill? I would just like to know that.
BEHAR: It was a bill that existed and he let it go, and now he's vetoing it.
HASSELBECK: I would like to investigate it.
BEHAR: Go ahead. Here it is. Paul Krugman, "New York Times."
[applause]
HASSELBECK: Well, a lot of the times– the reason why I ask is a lot of times people try to pass a bill and there are other things are attached that no one really ever hears about.
BEHAR: This is why the Congress has a low approval rating and so does Bush. Because they don't deal with four million children who need health insurance.
HASSELBECK: Well they should have it. Where are the parents of these children? Are they working?
BEHAR: The parents are poor. They don't have the money to buy insurance.
HASSELBECK: I want information though. I want information on this bill.
BARBARA WALTERS: This is why every candidate is talking about health insurance.
BEHAR: As they should.
WALTERS: And this is why Michael Moore has a film called "Sicko" --
BEHAR: As he should.
[applause]
WALTERS: And this is why the one thing candidates won't do is to say we will raise taxes to have health insurance because that's a sure way of getting defeated.
