We, the people, cannot accept President Bush's VETO of SCHIP!

Congress has one last chance to vote the right way, but we need to push to get a 2/3 majority.

Tennessee Congresswomen Blackburn, Congressmen David Davis, Zack Wamp, and John Duncan voted "NO" twice against health insurance for children in TN. They did the wrong thing!

Senators Alexander and Corker voted YES for health insurance for children in Tennessee! They did the right thing!

Tennessee Congressmen Cohen, Tanner, Cooper, L. Davis, and Bart Gordon voted YES for health insurance for children in Tennessee. They did the right thing!

Call the four Tennessee Congress members who voted "NO." All four of these members of Congress voted "NO" to the House version, "NO" to the compromise version, and they say that they will vote "NO" to over-riding the President's veto. This is not acceptable.

What must you do? Plenty -

1. Participate in all public events to support SCHIP and oppose the President's veto - On Thursday, Oct. 4, there is a rally in front of Centennial Park at 6 PM.
2. Call your members in our U.S. Congress, 1-800-828-0498 or 1-866-544-7573, and ask them to guarantee insurance for 4 million additional children under SCHIP;
3. Go to at least one of the following web sites & learn more:
• http://www.familiesusa.org/bushvskids/
• http://covertheuninsured.org/
• http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/10/03/bush.veto/index.html
• http://www3.georgetown.edu/grad/gppi/hpi/ccf/schip/
• http://commonsense.ourfuture.org/veto_will_not_be_quiet?tx=3
• http://www.childrensdefense.org/site/PageServer
• http://www.firstfocus.net/pages/3286/1,000_Children_Call_on_Laura_Bush_to_Persuade_George_to_Sign_the_Children%E2%80%99s_Health_Bill.htm
4. Email your members of U.S. Congress;
5. Recruit your friends, even Republican friends, and family members to call. The majority of Republicans also support SCHIP;
6. Tell us your story about your child being uninsured.

The challenge now is that the President has vetoed this legislation that would provide health insurance to children in working families who make too much for their children to be on Medicaid and not enough for them to afford health insurance. The following Tennessee U.S. Congress members have now voted against our children twice. They will have one last chance to change their vote by voting to over-riding the President's VETO:

Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn - Southern middle and west Tennessee
Congressman David David - Northeast Tennessee
Congressman Zack Wamp - Southeast Tennessee
Congressman John Duncan - East Tennessee

We need one of these four members of Congress to change his/her vote, and help provide 20 more votes in the House to over-ride the President's veto. Without this SCHIP bill, funding for Tennessee's CoverKids program will be in jeopardy. Governor Bredesen was one of 29 Governors who wrote President Bush, asking him to sign the SCHIP legislation.

We think that Congress may vote to over-ride the President' veto in a week or so, but we must take action now and continue to build more action. We may have to continue our effort for 3 or 4 weeks. We cannot let this VETO stand. We are talking about all our children.

Sincerely,

Tony Garr, Tennessee Health Care Campaign