ABSTRACT
On September 28, 2007, President George W. Bush used his weekly radio address to explain his veto of the reauthorization of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). Avowing support for SCHIP’s original intent to provide medical care to poor, uninsured American children, the President nevertheless objected that congressional Democrats’ expansion of SCHIP had transformed the program to include citizens well above the poverty line, some of whom already had private insurance. The Democratic response to the President’s radio address was given not by a member of Congress or other Democratic officeholder as is the norm but instead by a 12-year-old boy from Baltimore, Maryland. Graeme Frost, who had received medical coverage under SCHIP after a serious car accident, gave a personal account of his injuries, the difficulty of his recovery, and the assistance the SCHIP program provided his family throughout the ordeal. Wondering “why President Bush wants to stop kids who really need help from getting CHIP,” the boy said, “I just hope the President will listen to my story and help other kids to be as lucky as me.” 1
