In a scathing blog post yesterday morning, Senator Kerry condemned Bush and his Roadblock Republicans for once again putting party and greed before the need of our children.

Playing Chicken with Children's Health Care by John Kerry on September 27th, 2007

If there’s anybody left who doubts that “compassionate conservatism” is an Orwellian smokescreen for the same old Republican policies, listen to this:

After promising he’d work on “expanding health care for children,” the President has now unilaterally declared war on a successful, wildly popular program that gives health care to millions of low-income kids.

Democrats see a successful program, S-CHIP, and they see 11 million kids still uninsured in the richest country in the world, and they want to build on what works and expand it. Makes sense, right? But this White House is so hell-bent on denying the Democratic Congress a victory, the President’s threatening to veto health care for kids.

This is the same guy who never met a Republican spending bill he couldn’t sign. Not one. $300 million bridge to nowhere? Pass the pork. Half-trillion dollars on the road to quagmire in Iraq? Bring it on. But a few billion a year for health care for millions of kids? Forget it. Not this President. Not the “compassionate conservative.”

This time the President’s “coalition of the willing” is even more puny: a handful of right-wing ideologues who put half-baked economic theories above the all-too-real health problems of poor children and the bipartisan advice of, well, just about everyone else. Families support it. Doctors support it. Hospitals support it. Many Republican governors support it. Hell, even insurance companies like this bill!

The President still says he’s committed to “expanding health care to children” but his machinations on this issue tell a different story — this is what happens when people who hate government run our government: we get regulators who don’t regulate, “heckuva-job” cronies, and trickle-down tax cuts that leave middle class families feeling trickled on.

For Republicans, this S-CHIP bill is the worst threat of all: a bipartisan bill to expand a government program that actually works, and a chance for this Democratic Congress to deliver. That’s like kryptonite to Republicans, who honestly seem to think that America’s gain would be a Republican loss if it’s passed by a Democratic Congress.

His was not the only warning to put the welfare of our kids first. Senator Kennedy held a press conference a bit later, in which he challenged the Senate Republicans and Bush to do the right thing:

Video Credit: CapNewsNet

Apparently these warnings and calls for decency paid off, because late in the evening, S-CHIP passed by a margin of 67-29. The Senate vote is therefore veto-proof.