burlingtonfreepress.com

Sponsored by:

vt.Buzz ~ a political blog

Political notes from Free Press staff writers Terri Hallenbeck, Sam Hemingway and Nancy Remsen


8.21.2007

 

Awkward politics

Gov. Jim Douglas finds himself in an interesting political position these days with the Bush administration, don't you think?"

Vermont and other states will take financial hits under the new, out-of-the-blue rule changes for the State Children's Health Insurance Program that the Bush administration just announced. Bush and Douglas are in the same political party, of course, and Douglas supported (read that worked for) Bush's election and re-election.

Yet the headline over the governor's statement on this change says "Bush administration proposal to "gut" children's health care program. Douglas goes on to describe the Bush action as shortsighted and unconscionable. Wow, those are strong words for someone who's supposed to be a friend and political ally.

On this issue -- health care for kids -- it looks like the Douglas administration wants to make sure Vermonters see their governor as willing to stand up to Washington.

It's the second time in a week that I've heard fightin' words from the Douglas administration towards the Bush administration. In an interview last week, Secretary of Administration Michael Smith expressed the same consternation about the Bush administration's decision on the state's request for permission to use federal dollars on the soon-to-launch Catamount Health. Smith said, "I don't understand the Bush administration on this at all. They are dead wrong."

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-VT, doesn't have those kinds of political entanglements to worry about, so it was easy for him to take aim at the Bush administration on the SCHIP rule change.

He called it "sick" and "outrageous." "Frankly, even for the Bush administration this is a new low. While he pushes for billions in tax breaks for the richest 1 percent, he is throwing kids off of the health insurance they already have. What a set of priorities."

It was an easy call for Rep. Peter Welch, D-VT, too, who joined the Bush bashers on SCHIP late this afternoon. He said, "By attempting to gut successful children's health care programs, President Bush has yet again demonstrated his morally misguided priorities."


-- Nancy Remsen

Comments:
Funny how emboldened our governor gets when the candidate he pimped for starts sliding into anonymity and when the political winds start blowing the other direction. Ooooh. Now Jim's angry. Great. Welcome to many Vermonters hell for the last seven years, putting up with your moron candidate of choice. Thanks for selling us that bad bill of goods Jim. What's next on your agenda? Scrap bridge parts?
 
Love it. The media finally admits that Douglas has two faces.
 
Is this "blog" just a weekly hit against Gov. Douglas?
 
I agree. It's about time the press and these blogs start reporting exactly what a do nothing governor Douglas really is.
 
I agree. It's about time the press and these blogs start reporting exactly what a do nothing governor Douglas really is.
 
Shouldn't Douglas have supported the Bush position on this issue as part of his "agenda of affordability?" The Vermont families that the Bush Administration doesn't want to cover under this program have incomes of between 250 and 300 percent of the federal poverty line. For 4-person families, those are families with incomes of $50,000 to $60,000. In Vermont, that is a solid middle-class income. Should the taxpayers be subsidizing health insurance for middle-class families? If Douglas wants all children's health expenses to be covered by the state, he could join Bernie Sanders and support a single-payer health care system like in Canada or Europe. But when the Legislature proposed such a system in 2005, Douglas vetoed it. The Governor keeps saying taxes are too high, but he can't say that and support an expansion of state-provided health care at the same time.
 
Waffle Waffle.
 
Pollina for Governor!
 
Pollina for Governor!
 
Polenta for Governor!
 
Placenta for Governor!
 
Anthony Placenta, the egotistical jerk who gave us Lt. Gov. Brian Dubie? I wouldn't vote for him if God told me to.

Oh, well. Now that I know what an unprincipled maniac Shumlin really is, I'm glad he didn't get elected Lt. Gov. in 2002.

Guess things have a way of working out, don't they.
 
So you would choose Shumlin over Pollina?
 
I am a strong Democrat and I could never vote for Anthony Pollina - he is in this for his own ego!

Why doesn't he run for the VT House or Senate - oh, that would be beneath him -- he wants to start at the top.
 
The taxpayer already subsidizes health care for middle and upper income people, those who get health care from employers as tax free income.

A family with income of $100,000 gets a tax free policy from IBM worth $12,000.

Some buying health care on their own must make $18,000, pay $6,000 in income taxes, and then buy a policy for $12,000.

The IBM family gets a $6,000 subsidy from the rest of us.

That $6,000 is more than it costs Canada to insure a family of four.

And you want government out of health care?
 
The Progressives in Vermont are as impotent as the environmentalists in our state. A lot of talk without a lot of active bodies to back it up.
 
At this point, I could never vote for either Shumlin or Pollina.

Signed, a Democrat.

P.S., are there any moderate Democrats left in Vermont?
 
Governor Douglas wants to do to our school system what Bush is doing to children's health care. He wants to gut it. He keeps saying that costs are out of control, but has nothing -- nothing -- to offer as a solution.

Green Mountain Boy
 
It is not safe to be moderate and a democrat in Vermont - the party would crucify you for being too "republican".
 
In Vermont right now you are far left or far right. The rest of us just vot against someone.
 
"Governor Douglas wants to do to our school system what Bush is doing to children's health care. He wants to gut it."

This is utterly baseless paranoid partisan nonsense. The desire to control out of control school costs equals wanting to "gut" the public school system? Shame on you for this irresponsible reckless statement.

Anyone with a brain understands that wanting to put some controls on spending in the state with the highest per pupil spending in the country does not evidence a desire to "gut" the school system.

Shame on you.
 
American Heritage Dictionary, Second College Edition: "Gut": to disembowl, to destroy the contents or interior of.

Where is the evidence that Gov. Douglas wants to destroy our school system?
 
Just look at his appontments to the Vt State Board of Education - almost everyone of them is very to extremely conservative -- and almost everyone of them dislikes the public school system.

Yes, Jim Douglas would like to cause havoc on our public school system!!!
 
That's a backtrack of your earlier statement. A big one.
 
And what does "cause havoc on our public school system" mean?

And how do you know that "almost every one of them (Douglas' appointments to the public school system) dislikes the public school system." Exactly which ones have said "I don't like the public school system."

You're spouting unfounded opinions.
 
You are so right! Most Vermonters are just voting "against" someone - not for anyone.
 
Post a Comment



<< Home

Recent Posts

Recent Comments

Archives

June 2006   July 2006   August 2006   September 2006   October 2006   November 2006   December 2006   January 2007   February 2007   March 2007   April 2007   May 2007   June 2007   July 2007   August 2007   September 2007   October 2007   November 2007   December 2007   January 2008   February 2008   March 2008   April 2008   May 2008   June 2008   July 2008   August 2008   September 2008   October 2008   November 2008   December 2008   January 2009   February 2009   March 2009   April 2009   May 2009   June 2009   July 2009   August 2009   September 2009   October 2009   November 2009   December 2009   January 2010   February 2010   March 2010   April 2010