Bush threatens veto

The Senate Finance Committee approved an expansion of Children’s Health Insurance Program on Thursday. The vote was 17 to 4 with all Democrats and a majority of Republicans supporting the plan. According to the NYT's Bush has threatened a veto.

Lets look at the numbers.

$60 billion is $38.43 per-capita.

THe Bush plan costs $30 billion which is $19.21 per-capita.

The Democratic (and majoirty of Republicans) bill costs $19.22 more per-capita than Bush's proposal.

According to Republican Pat Roberts the bill would "provide health insurance coverage to approximately four million more children who would otherwise be uninsured." And Daniel E. Smith the Vice President of the American Cancer Society stated that the bill would “prevent more than 900,000 Americans from dying prematurely because of smoking,” to to the fact that most of the funding for the expansion comes from a .61 cent increase in the cigarette tax.

For $19.21 more dollars per-capita. We get 4 million more kids with insurance and 900,000 fewer premature deaths from smoking.