Thursday, October 04, 2007

More On CHIP: Talk on the Train, Etc.

Today was a train day. As train people know, you just don't make political (or any kind of public) announcements once your feet are on the train car. Candidates can work the stations but that's it. Not today, though. In my years of SEPTA serfdom, this was the first time a passenger stood up and made a political statement. He was in scrubs and clearly a first-timer at this, as his delivery wasn't very smooth and he hadn't planned out where he would stand very well. This made his comments seem more honest and earnest. He said he worked at Children's Hospital and that Pres. Bush had vetoed the CHIP bill, explaining a little what that was. He then urged us to go to www.house.gov and leave messages for the three Pennsylvania representatives who had voted against the bill (Peterson English, Pitts, Shuster), urging them to change their vote. There was a shocked silence as he finished talking.

Josh Drobnyk, fresh from some time off, is back at Pennsylvania Avenue and writes about the full page ads you might have seen congratulating Charlie Dent (PA-15) for his vote on the CHIP bill. He and fellow Republican Pennsylvania Congressman Jim Gerlach (PA-06) both voted for it.

Press releases on this abound from our local Democratic congressional represenatives:

Patrick Murphy (PA-08)(full of data and statistics)
Joe Sestak (PA-07)
Allyson Schwartz (PA-13)

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I couldn't even listen to the news about the SCHIP veto; I could feel my blood pressure shooting up.

But what really amazed me is how universal the condemnation of Bush is on this one. My stoutest Republican friends were appalled, and embarrassed.

Thank God there isn't too much left of his term.

AboveAvgJane said...

He's starting to backpedal on the issue. It will be interesting to see what happens.

Unknown said...

Phil English voted FOR the second, compromise, bi-partisan SCHIP bill - the one that only provides $35B in funding and doesn't touch the obscene overpayments to Medicare Advantage.

The Roll Call is here. It's number 906. The first SCHIP vote, Roll Call 787, where English and every other PA GOP Rep (I think) voted wrong, is here. That's the bill I wanted to see made law.

AboveAvgJane said...

Robin,

Thank you for the correction. I really appreciate it.

Unknown said...

It's so hard to keep track of the votes. It should be easier. I need a Thomas for Busy People.