"He was lying. (Bush saying he supported SCHIP as gov of TX)

SCHIP Watch

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2007/10/16/BL2007101600991.html

Lou Dubose writes in the Washington Spectator: "'I have strongly supported the S-CHIP as a governor, and I have done so as president,' said President Bush at the beginning of a hastily called press conference on September 20.

"He was lying.

"Most elected officials lie. . . . Yet the lie President Bush told about his position on the children's health insurance program while he was governor of Texas is newsworthy. It was intended to mask an ideological rigidity that will adversely affect the lives of millions of children, just as Bush's ideological rigidity in 1999 would have affected the lives of hundreds of thousands of children in Texas if the legislature hadn't forced him to implement S-CHIP."
..........

"At first, Bush was unyielding. But he was running for president, watching polls. In the end, he capitulated, agreeing to the Democrats' plan, with its enrollment of 500,000 children in the program. I was standing in the House chamber when Bush walked over to the Democratic legislator who had led the fight.

"'Congratulations,' Bush said to him. 'You shoved it down our throat.'