By 2003, the economy showed signs of improvement, though job growth remained stagnant. Another tax cut was passed that year. Only four other U.S. presidents have left office with the stock market lower than when they began. After being re-elected, Bush signed into law a Medicare drug benefit program that, according to Jan Crawford, resulted in 'the greatest expansion in America's welfare state in forty years' – the bill's costs approached $7 trillion. :274 In 2007, Bush opposed and vetoed State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) legislation, which was added by the Democrats onto a war funding bill and passed by Congress. It was to be funded by an increase in the cigarette tax. Bush viewed the legislation as a move toward socialized health care, and asserted that the program could benefit families making as much as $83,000 per year who did not need the help.
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