Its not often a President of the UNited States praises a victory by the tobacco companies but it is to be expected from George W Bush.
According to the Eugene Register-Guard George W Bush hailed the victory of the tobacco companies as:
"..."We had some interesting results at the ballot box last week. In the state of Oregon, voters rejected the plan to raise tobacco taxes to further enlarge a government health program," Bush said at a speech in Louisville, Ky. "In other words, when the voters were given a chance, they voted such a plan down in the state of Oregon...."
Yes, only Bush could take pride in the fact that 100,0000 more children have been left out of healthcare
The quote above is as much a misinterpretation of the facts as "We know they have nucular weapons"
For starters, Bush is cherrypicking facts again if he thinks Oregon voters like the conservative agenda---we also voted in a possibly more important landuse peoposition that completely turned around the conservative development-supporting Prop 37 thathad been voted in a few years ago. (under false pretenses) Oregon is a Blue State, we don't like Bush here at all (loonies excepted)
Bush's glee hypes a victory of the tobacco companies--they spent as $24 per registered voter to defeat an S-Chip type bill that puts more kids on healthcare.
the taxes that were to be added to tobacco produucts would have only brought them into line with the current taxes in Washington and California.
but what really offends me about this is Bush's tone of glee---as if voters themselves made the choice without any outside influence.
"... (Gov)Kulongoski and other Democrats say most Oregonians support an expansion of children’s health care but were heavily influenced by a record-breaking $12 million television-advertising blitz financed by the tobacco industry....":
That was the case--- anti ads were about 4 times more common than pro ads and they had all the misleading facts you'd expect from tobacco companies.
"...After the Nov. 6, vote, Oregon Rep. Greg Walden and other Republicans said the vote bodes well for their showdown with Democrats over expansion of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, or SCHIP.
"The question I have is, if voters were opposed to Measure 50 why would they like its twin sister that we’re considering here?" Walden said...."
As you can see from the article, Conservatives are going to try and beat SCHIP again if it should come up on the basis of this rejection, saying it proves people don't want government run health propgrams. But we should be aware of the differences---The Prop 50 campaign was beaten by tobacco companies--we need to point out how Bush sided with the tobacco companies (again!) Bush's health programs, if there are any, are written to please tobacco companies.
But we shouldn't get too much resistance from the T companies on SChip---it doesn't involve taxes on their products, so they'll probably ignore it.
So in Oregon, another 100,000 kids have been left off the healthcare rolls just because tobacco companies didn't want it.
And only George W Bush would crow about it.