The Three Amigos Ride Again...

Yesterday, the House of Representatives considered overriding the President's veto of H.R. 3963, the Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2007. The Act would have renewed and expanded SCHIP, the program that provides health insurance coverage for poor children.

The attempt to override the veto failed by a 260 - 152 vote, 2/3 required to override the veto.

Naturally, being loyal Republicans all, Jeff Flake (R-AZ6), John Shadegg (R-AZ3), and Trent Franks (R-AZ2) voted to sustain the President's veto; according to the tenets of their ideology, the profits of private insurers are more important than poor children.

While none of the three could be bothered to speak on the House floor in support of children, or even to defend their support of the President's veto, the ever-consistent Trent Franks did have time to stroll to the floor of the House and insert a statement into the record bemoaning...

...the 35th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision. (p. E71 of the Congressional Record).

Nice to see that he still stops worrying about the welfare of children once they're born.


..Update - few days ago, I wrote a post noting John Shadegg's conspicuous absence while his constituents in Paradise Valley dealt with TCE-contaminated tap water.

Later, DownWithTyranny in California found him campaigning for John McCain in South Carolina. (Thanks for the update DWT!)

So, let's see where Shadegg's priorities lie -

1. Defend his conduct in circumventing campaign finance laws.

2. Traipse around South Carolina in winter.

3. Vote to screw over poor children and protect insurance company profits.

4. Join a court motion to stop a lawsuit over the 'under God' reference in the Pledge of Allegiance.

- Work for his constituents.

There's no number for that last because there's no evidence that he *ever* works for his constituents; hence, there's no way to quantify where that falls on his list of priorities.


...x4mr has a post on the SCHIP override vote here; Michael Bryan of Blog for Arizona has one here.

Later!