As Cornyn voted against SCHIP...

He knew about this story.....

It was while he was at school one Thursday in February that Deamonte complained of toothache. On the Saturday he had emergency surgery. An abscess had spread to his brain.

A few weeks later he died.

"Everyone here was shocked," says Ms James.

"They couldn't understand how he could have toothache and then die. We sometimes give the little kids candy as a reward; well, for a while they stopped taking it because they would say 'if I get a cavity, will I die?'"

Deamonte's mother, Alyce, could not afford private health insurance and in the US there is no state health service.

Mr Bush believes the bill extends the programme too far

For the poorest there is some free treatment, called Medicaid. But not all dentists or doctors accept Medicaid patients, and Alyce Driver could not afford to pay to have Deamonte's tooth extracted.

This story is not a one-off. Some 45 million Americans are without health insurance, nine million of them children.

Many say it is America's national scandal.

In Washington political opponents have come together on this issue, in part driven by the outcry over Deamonte.

This week, lawmakers - both Democrat and Republican - supported a bill that would help fund insurance for four million more children.

In the Senate, the bill passed 67-29. It also passed in the House of Representatives but with less than the two-thirds majority needed to override a presidential veto.

The proposed bill extends the State Children's Health Insurance Programme (Schip) that subsidises insurance for families who may not be the poorest, but who cannot afford private insurance.

Mr Bush says expanding public funding goes against the principles of private health care, and that subsidising it creates a disincentive for people to buy private care themselves. source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7018057.stm

I say Sen. Cornyn should have to face all the parents on SCHIP in a auditorium and tell them to their faces why their children don't deserve medical care. Then, I would like to see him get rid of his own government subsidized health insurance, paid for on my dime, and see how 48 million Americans face even a minor illness.