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White House Press Briefing by Tony Fratto 10/22/07 (S-CHIP Veto)
— Monday, October 22, 2007 — Q Tony, back to the supplemental, the President just vetoed SCHIP -- you know, an extra $35 billion for children's health care, saying he wanted to be fiscally responsible; hold the line on federal spending. How does he then justify coming out of the gate with an -- you know, in such a short period of time and saying, now I need an extra $40-plus billion for Iraq? MR. FRATTO: Well, I could see that point if that was what the President said, but that's exactly not what the President said. What the President said was is that they have the policy wrong on SCHIP, not that it's too expensive or is -- Q They were asking for too much, though, right? MR. FRATTO: No, they were asking for a policy that was bad. Let me tell you something about the -- what the SCHIP bill that Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid are proposing, okay. If you look at the eligible communities in this bill, it would result in 57 percent of children in this country and about 53 percent of families with children on public assistance, or at least eligible for public assistance. Now what the President has said is that poor children should come first. Now there are a lot of things you can say about half the families in America. Half of them aren't poor. And so the President has said that the policy is wrong. He didn't say that it's too expensive -- although it is too expensive to spend money on the wrong policy. So what he has said is the policy is wrong. Now, with regard to the supplemental request, children -- the right children, poor children getting their health care, and the needs of our troops can both be accomplished. They're both priorities and we can handle both of those requests. Iraq | President Bush | Press Briefing | S-CHIP | Tony Fratto | Vetoes | White House Press Corps Labels: Iraq, President Bush, Press Briefing, S-CHIP, Tony Fratto, Vetoes, White House Press Corps
Posted by White House Press Corps @ 8:41 PM  White House Press Briefing by Dana Perino 10/2/07 (Iraq War Tax and S-CHIP) — Tuesday, October 02, 2007 — Q Dana, on Iraq, Congressman Murtha and some other Democrats are now talking about a war tax, they're talking about a new surcharge that would pay for the war in Iraq. They say it will raise about $150 billion a year. Is that dead on arrival at the White House, or does the President think maybe there should be some sacrifice to pay for the war? MS. PERINO: Well, we've always known that Democrats seem to revert to type and they are willing to raise taxes on just about anything. There's no need to increase taxes. The President has shown how if we prioritize and if we get the spending bills done in a clean way, we can actually have a surplus in our budget by 2012. We don't see any need to raise the taxes. Q But when you talk about priorities, tomorrow we're expecting the President is going to veto the S-CHIP bill over saving $30 billion, and meanwhile you're spending hundreds of billions of dollars in the war in Iraq -- MS. PERINO: But the President -- the President's first and foremost responsibility is making sure that Americans are safe, including children are safe. And, frankly, that's Congress's main responsibility, as well. And that's where the priorities are. I think that anyone -- I think it's apples and oranges to try to compare S-CHIP to funding for the troops. Q Well, they're all in the same federal budget, you do have to pick priorities on what you're spending money on, don't you? MS. PERINO: What the President wants is for S-CHIP to revert back to what is the original intent of the law, which is that the neediest children should be taken care of first. That's not what the law that they sent to the President does -- well, we don't have it yet, we'll get it soon -- but that's not what that law does. I would also say that, in a time when Democrats are very concerned, supposedly, about people being worried about how they're going to pay for their mortgage, that raising taxes on them doesn't seem like the wisest fiscal policy. In a time when they think that they want to increase funding for children's health care, they're actually wanting to pay for it with a cigarette tax, which includes -- people who smoke are usually -- the majority are in the low-income bracket. And so they're raising taxes on something to pay for a middle-class entitlement. It's just completely irresponsible. Stop the madness on Capitol Hill. Q And yet 70 percent of the public in the latest poll yesterday, an ABC/Washington Post poll, supports that increase in the S-CHIP, but opposes the $190 billion in war funding spending. MS. PERINO: Well, you know, I don't know how all those questions were asked in the poll, and you might want to take a look at that and be a little bit skeptical. But I think that people would agree that we -- well, and also what I said yesterday: Republicans often taken on really unpopular positions because it does sound great to say that you're going to spend a lot more on children's health care, but when you start digging deeper and realize that they've got a funding cliff, that basically in 2011, there's no money left for the S-CHIP program. They don't fund it sustainably. And on this idea of raising taxes on the American people right now to fund a war, well, does that sunset? Do they wait for al Qaeda to wave a white flag and then those taxes are going to go away? Does anyone seriously believe that the Democrats are going to end these new taxes that they're asking the American people to pay at a time when it's not necessary to pay them? I just think it's completely fiscally irresponsible, and the President won't go along with it. Bret. Q Dana, can I follow -- Q Who's paying for this war? Q On that line, Representative Obey said today that Democrats will not pass a supplemental spending bill for the Iraq war until next year, in an effort to pressure the President to change course. All of this, they say, is designed that if you don't want the taxes, end the war. What's the response to all that? MS. PERINO: Well, they're asking -- I don't know exactly what they're asking for; I can't think like they do. But what they're -- I think what they want is for all the troops to come home. And if it's an immediate end to the war that they want, they've already proven several times that they're not going to be able to get that law passed. So if you look also out on the Senate side, I think it was the Gregg-Murray resolutions from last year that said, no matter what your position is on the war, we're not going to risk not funding the troops. And I can't imagine that the Senate is going to go back on their word. And many of these members of Congress went to Iraq over the recess, during August, and I would find it hard to believe that they would tell these troops that they're not going to provide them the funding. Dana Perino | Iraq | Press Briefing | S-CHIP | Taxes | White House Press Corps Labels: Dana Perino, Iraq, Press Briefing, S-CHIP, Taxes, White House Press Corps
Posted by White House Press Corps @ 6:41 PM White House Press Briefing by Dana Perino 10/1/07 (S-CHIP) — Monday, October 01, 2007 — MS. PERINO: Keith. Q Dana, why is it that there are so many children that haven't been included in the S-CHIP program? It's an administration-run program -- MS. PERINO: Well, no, actually it's run by the states and it's federally matched by the federal government. Q Okay. MS. PERINO: But you might ask the states why they haven't been able to do that. Q Well, should the administration have requested more money sooner to provide the states -- I mean, that's the solution now is -- MS. PERINO: One of the things that we did is we provided the states with flexibility early on and unfortunately the flexibility meant mission creep and allowed some children who weren't supposed to be on the program and adults to be added to the program. We want to get the program back to its original intent. Q How did those 750,000 children slip through the cracks, that you know that number -- is supposed to be fact -- that are not on? MS. PERINO: Well, again this is a program that is administered by the states and they need to reach out to those families and make sure that they know that the service is available, the program is available to them, and make sure that they know that they can take advantage of it and get their children enrolled. Q Thank you. Labels: Dana Perino, Press Briefing, S-CHIP, White House Press Corps
Posted by White House Press Corps @ 8:16 PM Press Conference by the President 9/20/07 (S-CHIP Veto) — Thursday, September 20, 2007 — THE PRESIDENT: Ann. Q Quick follow, if I may, Mr. President? THE PRESIDENT: No, you may not. Q Mr. President, back to your grade point average on holding the line on taxes -- THE PRESIDENT: Whew, I thought you were going to talk about the actual grade point average. (Laughter.) I remind people that, like when I'm with Condi I say, she's the Ph.D. and I'm the C-student, and just look at who's the President and who's the advisor. (Laughter.) But go ahead. Q If there is a tax increase on cigarettes to fund the S-CHIP program, is that a tax increase you oppose? THE PRESIDENT: It does. We don't need to raise taxes. What I want is the Congress to be focused on making sure poor children get the health insurance they were promised. Instead, Congress has made a decision to expand the eligibility up to $80,000. That's not the intent of the program. The program was find poor children and help them with health insurance. Their vision is, expand the eligibility so that people making up to $80,000 will be eligible for this program. I believe this is a step toward federalization of health care. I know that their proposal is beyond the scope of the program, and that's why I'm going to veto the bill. Labels: President Bush, Presidential Press Conference, S-CHIP, Vetoes, White House Press Corps
Posted by White House Press Corps @ 8:34 PM
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