Jeff Miller the Marionette Congressman

Northwest Florida's weak excuse for a congressman, Jeff Miller, gets ink in today's Pensacola News Journal for opposing legislation that would renew the State Children's Health Insurance Program. SCHIP, as it is known, makes it possible for --

Families who earn too much to qualify for Medicaid... .

Families that do not currently have health insurance are likely to be eligible, even if you are working. The states have different eligibility rules, but in most states, uninsured children under the age of 19, whose families earn up to $36,200 a year (for a family of four) are eligible. For little or no cost, this insurance pays for:

1. doctor visits
2. immunizations
3. hospitalizations
4. emergency room visits

It's a widely popular safety net for the working poor and middle class. For good reason. The latest statistical reports show "nearly 47 million Americans, or 16 percent of the population, were without health insurance in 2005" and "nearly 82 million people -- about one-third of the population below the age of 65 -- spent a portion of either 2002 or 2003 without health coverage."

SCHIP doesn't cover all of them, unfortunately, but it does cover their children.

Nevertheless, Miller says he'll vote to uphold George Bush's veto of the bill that would have continued the program. The reasons Miller give come right out of a cookie-cutter G.O.P. talking points memo which the AP uncovered two weeks ago:

He cited several reasons for his original vote against the bill, including its $35 billion price tag and potential to insure illegal immigrants.
***
Miller said he doesn't oppose the program, but the current bill takes the wrong approach. The measure depends too much on tobacco taxes and marks the first step toward socialized medicine, he said.

Let's see. Too expensive? Check. Might accidentally help some illegal alien child somewhere in the U.S. who has an infectious disease? Check. Uses tobacco taxes? Check. Socialized medicine? Check.

All absolutely ridiculous, of course. No one in Northwest Florida can be fooled by such transparent drivel, especially coming from a congressman like Miller who consistently votes the Bush party line.

The real reason Miller will vote to kill a sensible, efficient, and cost-effective health insurance program for kids of the working poor and middle class? He's been told to do so, by the Bush White House.

And that's the real problem with our congressman, Jeff Miller. It's not that he's a Republican. It's not that he claims to be a conservative. It's not even that he is so very wrong so often.

The root problem with Miller is that he doesn't think for himself or think about his own constituents. He simply phones it in whenever and however the G.O.P. leadership tells him to.

Jeff Miller isn't really a congressman. He's a puppet whose strings are pulled by someone else.