Kucinich Votes No on S-CHIP

Rep. Dennis Kucinich, Democratic of Ohio who is running for president, voted against the state Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) expressly because it didn't cover the uninsured children of legal immigrants. “I cannot support legislation which extends health coverage to some children while openly denying it to other children,” Kucinich said in a press release. “This legislation is woefully inadequate: and I will not support it. Legal immigrant children deserve the same quality health care as other children receive. It is Congress’ responsibility to address the main difficulties that prevent legal immigrant children from gaining access to health care. Today, we did exactly the opposite."

Kucinich noted that he had voted for the original House version of the bill, which did not exclude immigrant kids from coverage.

His was the only principled opposition to the bill among the seven Democrats who voted against it. The other six were conservative Democrats, largely from the South, who apparently are opposed to more government involvement in health care. Ironically, the only Hispanic legislators who voted against the bill were Republican Cuban-Americans from Florida, Lincoln and Mario Diaz-Balart (are these guys brothers?).