Bruce F. Simmeth – 10/11/07

This page was last updated on October 15, 2007.

Override Bush’s SCHIP veto; Bruce F. Simmeth; Beaver County Times; October 11, 2007.

The letter identifies the author as Executive Director of United Way of Beaver County.

This is the at least the fifth letter from Mr. Simmeth since June 2005 lobbying for more government redistribution of income/wealth. If you look at my previous critiques of his letters (here, here, and here), you’ll find Mr. Simmeth tends to overstate alleged cuts and requests huge increases. In one case, Mr. Simmeth appeared to request a spending increase of from five to 10 times. In January 2006, Mr. Simmeth wanted federal taxpayers to increase their funding of the Low Income Heating Assistance Program (LIHEAP) by $2,000,000,000. I did not critique that letter (“Hike LIHEAP funding”; January 24, 2006) and it is no longer on the Times website.

While I applaud Mr. Simmeth’s efforts to help the less fortunate among us, I oppose the use of taxpayer dollars to fund any of these efforts. It’s wrong to take income from one person and give it to another, regardless of good intentions.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.

“I am writing to express my deep disappointment in President Bush’s veto of legislation to reauthorize and strengthen the State Children’s Health Insurance Program.

“This legislation, a House-Senate compromise, would have provided health insurance to more than 10 million low-income children across America. Congress passed H.R. 976 by an overwhelming margin in both chambers.”

[RWC] Not exactly. An “overwhelming margin” would mean Congress should easily be able to override the veto. Currently, there aren’t enough votes in the House to override.

“This veto will mean that 140,000 children from low- to moderate-income families in Pennsylvania will not have access to health insurance. These working families rely on SCHIP to provide health insurance for their children because they earn too much to qualify for Medicaid but not enough to afford private insurance.

“The president’s ill-advised veto was a decision to abandon the uninsured children of our country. Whatever happened to the compassionate conservative? Please contact your congressional representatives and urge them to join the bipartisan movement to override the president’s veto.”

[RWC] Below is what I wrote in a comment I posted on the Times website in response to a similar letter.

“Why does Ms. Delanko apparently believe its OK for parents to dump their childrearing responsibilities on their neighbors?

“I’m sure it was an honest oversight, but Ms. Delanko neglected to mention President Bush is fine with reauthorizing the current SCHIP program. The current program helps with healthcare for children of the poor not poor enough (up to 200% of the federal poverty level and allows states not to count certain income) to qualify for Medicaid. Incredibly, SCHIP also covers some parents. What Mr. Bush opposes is expanding the program beyond the poor and increasing the max age for covered children beyond the current 18. The current House version would triple federal SCHIP spending to $15 billion/year and the Senate version would increase it to 2.4 times the current level.

“At one point the proposal included families of four making more than $80,000/year and increased the max age for covered children to 25. Make no mistake about it; the proposed SCHIP expansion has nothing to do with “the children” as proponents would have us believe. It’s all about gradually implementing a taxpayer-funded, government-run healthcare system for the U.S.

“While I believe President Bush should veto the SCHIP expansion, I’m disappointed in him – and all elected Republicans – for not letting the SCHIP program expire on schedule.

“Do I believe people who need help because of unforeseen circumstances should get it? Of course, but via private charities funded by voluntary contributions.”