The Corpus Callosum has more on the currently unfolding CHIP (Children's Health Insurance Program) fiasco:
In the context of the pro and con lobbying over the proposed expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program, pharmaceutical companies decided to join the pro side. After all, if more children are insured, more of them will get prescription medication. But is is not just the drug companies, it is a broad-spectrum coalition....
And the response of the Administration? ...
Bush administration officials recently advised drug company executives not to support a major expansion of the program.
How bizarre is that? If you were an industry leader, in an industry that supported Bush's election and re-election, and he turned around and told you to lobby against your own interest, what would you think? That is exactly what has happened here.
If anything, I'm just amazed that this administration is able to so consistently one-up itself in its own lumbering machismo way.
Impressive.
At this point I figure that Bush thinks that the only way left for him make his mark on history is to become the least popular president in American history.