I recently wrote about Bush’s preliminary decision to resist Congress’ efforts to increase the level of funding for health insurance for underinsured children by heavily taxing cigarette sales (by as much as a 250% increase, according to some reports). In so doing, I did not mince words, and I don’t feel any differently now, except that now I’ve seen another editorial on the topic, as well as Bush’s own words that kindly explain what in the hell is going through his head.

Let’s start with Bush himself. During a speech in Cleveland after having met a few folks at Cleveland Clinic, he said, referring to a doctor with whom he spoke,

He said something pretty wise, though. He said, ‘You can have all the technology that man can conceivably create, but if you continue to smoke, we’re going backwards. If you’re not exercising, if you’re not taking care of the body yourself, all the technology isn’t going to save your life.’ In other words, there is a certain responsibility that we have as citizens to take care of ourselves.”

Well, sure. If you don’t take care of yourself, you’re going to die eventually. Smoking is bad. Lack of exercise is bad. That doesn’t change the fact, however, that access to decent medical care can, at times, help you. That’s been proven over the last, oh, several centuries at the very least. If Bush doubts this, then he’s even less not fit to be President. It also doesn’t change that fact that, increasingly, we are not taking care of ourselves.

It’s interesting that the doctor mentioned smoking specifically, though, because that’s one thing that this bill directly targets. The irony here is that Bush can, if he so chooses, provide children with access to decent medical care and reduce smoking, preventing us from “going backwards” and forcing us to “take care of ourselves” by limiting some access to tobacco products.

Of course, according to Bush, everyone already has access to medical care:

The immediate goal is to make sure there are more people on private insurance plans. I mean, people have access to health care in America. After all, you just go to an emergency room.”

Right. Emergency rooms. Just go there for all your troubles and you’ll be fine! Now with no waiting!

The editorial I mentioned puts the situation a bit more plainly but doesn’t equivocate its author’s accompanying confusion whatever:

After the Senate Finance Committee approved an expansion of the federal Children’s Health Insurance Program to cover nearly 10 million kids, President Bush offered a strange rationale for threatening to veto it.”

You really should read the whole article to get the full effect. It’s short and sweet, and one gets a sense that its author really is going nuts at this point over the incompetence of this administration.