Statement by AFL-CIO President John Sweeney On Senate Vote to Expand Children's Health Insurance

For Immediate Release
Contact: Caren Benjamin  202-637-5018

Statement by AFL-CIO President John Sweeney on
Senate Vote to Expand Children*s Health Insurance
September 28, 2007

A bipartisan majority in both houses of Congress has now spoken loudly
and  clearly in favor of expanding health insurance for children, and
the  President should drop his political playbook and listen.

By choosing to veto the children*s health insurance bill, George Bush
is  pushing his own political agenda on the backs of millions of
children. 

Every child in America should have the opportunity to grow up and be
anything they want to be, which means every child in America should have
access to health care. Kids should have the resources not only to get
healthy when they*re sick but to stay healthy when they*re not. No
child  should suffer because the cost of health care in this country has
spun out  of control. Caring for our children is not a political issue -
-  it*s a  moral obligation. No one in this great and wealthy nation
* especially no  child * should go without health care.