Hall of Shame: Mitch McConnell
2007-09-27
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rss feedKentucky Senator Mitch McConnell makes his second appearance in the Hall of Shame for putting George Bush above Kentucky children. Today McConnell voted against the bipartisan Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization bill - a bill that will provide health insurance to millions of kids nationwide.
Kentucky currently has 111,000 uninsured children and the proposed bill would cover almost half of those children. But President Bush staunchly opposes the legislation despite strong bipartisan support. So when Mitch McConnell was faced with choosing between President Bush and Kentucky's uninsured children who did he pick? George Bush.
Perhaps even more baffling, McConnell sided with Bush despite the President's flawed rationale. As one columnist pointed out, "even conservative Senate Republicans such as Utah's Orrin Hatch and Iowa's Charles Grassley have complained that Bush's concerns are, to put it politely, overstated." Grassley also described the President's charges that the bill goes too far and covers children from wealthier families as "factually incorrect," while Hatch added, "We're talking about kids who basically don't have coverage… I think the president's had some pretty bad advice on this."
Mitch McConnell has earned his second spot in the Hall of Shame for putting President Bush's partisan politics above the uninsured children of Kentucky. And with McConnell up for re-election in 2008, he just might find that Kentucky voters aren't willing to vote for a Senator who would rather rubber stamp George Bush than stand up for kids.
