The truth about SCHIP and no it's not Bush's "truth"

[tbone]

President Bush gave a false description of proposed legislation to expand the 10-year-old federal program to provide health insurance for children in low-income working families.

He said it "would result" in covering children in families with incomes up to $83,000 per year, which isn't true. The Urban Institute estimated that 70 percent of children who would gain coverage are in families earning half that amount, and the bill contains no requirement for setting income eligibility caps any higher than what's in the current law.

He also said the program was "meant to help poor children," when in fact Congress stated that it was meant to expand insurance coverage beyond the poor and to cover millions of "low-income" children who were well above the poverty line. Under current law most states cover children at twice or even three times the official poverty level.

The president also says Congress' expansion is a step toward government-run health care for all. It's true that some children and families with private insurance are expected to shift to the government program. But the Congressional Budget Office estimates that such a shift is relatively low considering the number of uninsured these bills would reach.

This is just the summary, see just how way off base Bush is in his statements here:
FactCheck.org: Bush's False Claims About Children's Health Insurance

I understand politicians spin, but honestly how does he get away with just making crap up?

[JaJae]

A lot of that is purely subjective. It's spin yes, but not as bad as it is being made out to be. It's typical politics is all.