President Bush routinely lies to the American people several times a month. Those who can still muster up the necessary outrage routinely call him out on it. And nothing changes at all.

But when George Bush makes a categorical statement and Orrin Hatch declares it to “flatly untrue”, that might make a lot of people sit up and take notice. How egregious does a presidential lie have to be before Orrin Hatch will publicly denounce it as a lie?

Republicans reacted angrily yesterday to President Bush’s promise to veto a bill that would renew and expand the popular State Children’s Health Insurance Program, raising the likelihood of significant GOP defections when the package comes to a vote next week.
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With the program about to expire on Sept. 30, Bush said in a news conference that he will reject the $35 billion funding expansion being cobbled together by House and Senate negotiators. He said the bill would inappropriately extend coverage to children in families with incomes of as much as $83,000 a year, prompting many parents to drop private insurance. He urged Congress to pass, instead, a temporary extension of the program until a more lasting compromise can be worked out.

“Members of Congress are putting health coverage for poor children at risk so they can score political points in Washington,” Bush said. …

But members of both parties countered that it is the president who is putting children’s health in jeopardy. They said most Americans, including many GOP governors and groups such as AARP, support the expansion of the program’s enrollment to about 10 million children from 6.6 million now.
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Asked whether he would vote to override a veto, Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah), a staunch conservative, said, “You bet your sweet bippy I will.”

Hatch, who helped negotiate the compromise, said it is flatly untrue that the bill would cover children in households with incomes of as much as $83,000.