S-CHIP is a Defining Issue That Neither Side Can Afford to Lose

The ongoing battle to reauthorize the State Children's Health Insurance Program is a big one. Stakes are high for everyone involved: the Congress, the White House, governors, state legislators, and, most importantly, nearly 3.5 million additional children that would be covered by health insurance.

This is an enormous issue of morality. There are an estimated 48 million Americans without access to healthcare; 9 million of those are children.

At issue here is a disagreement on how much the program should be increased. Democrats and many Republicans are advocating a $7 billion per year increase. That would achieve the coverage of the additional 3.5 million children previously noted. However, the White House only wants to increase the spending $5 billion per year. The program lasts for five years, so the total difference over the life of the program is $10 billion.

Over the $2 billion dollar per year difference, President Bush and his soul-lacking White House staff are not only threatening a veto, but applying an incredibly amount of pressure on House Republicans to vote against the bill. He says that it is moving us toward socialized healthcare.

Frankly, I don't care what you want to call it. Government exists to serve its people. Children are the most prized possession of any nation and we have a moral imperative as a nation to protect and nurture the children who represent the future of our Democracy.

To put this into perspective, we're spending a billion dollars a day on the war in Iraq. In less than a week and a half, we will have spent the entire difference between the two proposals on the war. That is embarrassing. I can't believe the White House is digging its heels in on this. Further, I can't believe that they aren't being publicly flogged by every politician and organization in America.

Here's what is at stake politically. Bush, after approving six Republican budgets that increased spending at a far greater rate than pretty much all of his predecessors, is trying to reclaim a position of fiscal conservatism. Because of his historically low approval rating, he is trying to shore up the support of his conservative base. Bush is also in great need of a congressional victory not related to Iraq or the trampling of Constitutional rights.

On the Democratic side, they desperately need a victory over the president in order to assert their new power in the majority. Their base is very disappointed in their inability to change the course of the war. A failure here would further demoralize the confidence that the base, and the general public, will have in the ability of a Democratic Congress to achieve measurable results.

All that being said, House Republicans hold the keys to the castle here. It is up to them to change course and vote to override the president's expected veto. Failure to do so should put them at the top of the DCCC's target list. Their Democratic challengers should go on the offensive immediately. If a Democratic challenger doesn't yet exist, then a party surrogate should target the Republicans who voted no.

At issue here is access to healthcare for nearly 3.5 million children. We as a nation can't afford to leave them behind for the sake of George Bush's political needs.

Comments

[realitytrumpsbull]

Don't conduct REAL healthscare reform, just
throw more money at it, maybe it'll go away...until NEXT time the HMO's want more money, and the NEXT time after that, and...
can we get some people in Congress that DON'T
hold stock in a healthcare company, please?

[WigWamWag]

Someone asked what is wrong with socialized medicine. The next story points out how a majority of citizens pay for the foolishness of a self indulant kid and his/her/its family.

A 12-year-old German boy who insisted he was a girl trapped in a boy's body convinced his parents that something had to be done, so they agreed to allow him to receive a series of hormone injections, making him the youngest sex-change patient in the world, according to published reports Monday.

Now 14, the boy, who went by the name Tim, has now become Kim "
Her treatment, which has cost more than $40,000, is being funded by German taxpayers.

[DefendOurConstitution]

It would only take One (count it 1) Democrat to block consideration of any Iraq funding request in the Senate. If we could find that ONE with a spine (assuming that he/she exists) all that Senator would have to do is to let Bush know, in no uncertain terms, that Iraq funding will not even come up for discussion on the Senate floor until Bush signs SCHIP as sent to him. I know it's probably asking for too much, but wouldn't it be nice to have one Senator with principles? I'm thinking someone who doesn't have anything to lose like my senior Senator Ted Kennedy.

[robchapman]

The winners and losers are not the Dems and Reps, they are the children and families whose financial and medical well-being are hanging on the outcome of this vote.

The GOP and conservatives have done a good job in convincing everyone that WAR is the business of government.

It is time to put a stop to this nonsense and start making the care of the sick, poor and vulnerable the national priority.

[deleweye]

We need not only this program but a comprehensive, efficiently operated national healthcare system.

That said, I would like one - just one - of the moralizing advocates for the passage of this bill - from Senator Baucus to Rep. Slaughter to Mr. Lane - or ANYONE - to explain to me how it is either moral or equitable to finance this bill with a regressive, punitive and discriminatory tax on tobacco users?

[tililek]

Keep reading about Bush and 'republicans'. Why not name these 'republicans' so their constituents can get in touch with them and relay their feelings.

But it seems much of mainstreet media looks to see which way the administration hopes and is not exactly free and unfettered.

[LeftRight]

The dems don't need to worry about the damn repubs right now. The same as with the war, what they need to do is grow a pair of cojones, stand up to the man and say "You won't get a single bill across your desk that does not include this!" and when the repugs in the senate filibuster it, let them, and say to them and the world "You are holding up children's health!" See how long either one of them can stand up to that kind of pressure, they will all cave, and we will have something going here!!!

[Ani]

Gosh!

Once again, our Bully-in-Chief threatens to veto legislation that this time would provide medical care for an extra 3.5 million uninsured children, and is pressuring Republicans to toe the line with him.

Why?

Because he's working on his legacy? He wants to shore up his base?

It's too late.

His presidency is blackened with the tar of torture, spying on citizens, Gitmo, Abu Ghraib, lying to Congress and the American people, illegally invading and occupying another country, the death of untold numbers of innocents, mismanagement during and after Katrina, and on and on and on ...

Wasn't he reported to blow up frogs with firecrackers as a kid?

Now he stands on the necks of children in order to make himself a little taller.

He wants billions MORE for HIS war ... and make no mistake, this is HIS war ... and yet he can't see clear to provide even a modest amount of health care for children.

I contend that anyone who stands with him on this issue is also small and cruel.

This is the kind of thing that saddens me so. Our president ... the person who continually promises to protect us from "bad guys" and "evil doers" ... has no compunction when it comes to protecting children.

I'm calling my Representatives today to ask them to stand with our children, rather than clinging to the ridiculous notion that it's a pathway to socialized medicine, as our president would argue.

Anyone with me?

Ani

[Oldchef]

I called my congressman's office yesterday and was told he was studying the final version to see how he would vote and was asked if I had a comment to pass on to the congressman. Yes, i said, parents of children vote here, george bush doesn't and nor do insurance companies. If we can spend billions in Iraq, surely we can squeeze out a few bucks to keep our children healthy. If our congresspeople can't do the people's business instead of the corporations business, then the people need to vote them out. We the people have the power, we need to start using it. Corporations can't vote!

[heykids]

You know no one would dare think of taking away the basic right of public education from children, but when it involves healthcare and the corporate interests like insurance companies, you can be sure there is squawking from the right on it.

[angelspiritbear]

I always check on the yes and no votes for these important bills going thru the Congress and then send my elected official my official comment. Then I work to sway any one who will listen at election time to vote yes or no for anyone up for re-election.
Let us keep this vote at athe forefront of the media coverage and express our outrage over "it's too expensive", while spending billions on the Iraq war.
I also have no sympathy for private insurers who could lose out if the bill passes into law. In fact, I would love to see a government health coverage just so the insurance companies can be screwed out of money.

[sedalia066]

"Government exists to serve its people."

Don't we wish a return to that state were in the offing?

[mcartri]

"Government exists to serve its people a bathtub to drown in." The quotation has been "sexed-up" to reflect the Republican viewpoint.

[JoAnnCr]

I am so tired of politics playing with people's lives.

As an example, I support John Edwards but again, politics trumps quality journalism when it comes to reporting Edwards's stellar plans and thoughtful contribution to the dialog about critical issues.

You'd think journalists would have learned how they can trash a quality candidate when they played the Swift Boat ads ad nauseum and sent John Kerry's popularity down the tube.

You'd think their hand in reelecting bozo the clown would have made them look more to issues, plans, consistent honesty than what rock star candidate can up their bottom line.

Journalists think they report on the problem with politics but they ARE the problem with politics.

The situation with S-chip, leaving Iraq, reinstating Habeas Corpus, and banning illegal wiretapping boils down to one man's shock and awe.

Until the main stream media accurately reports that fact and reports the quality individuals who are thoroughly prepared to make a difference rather than more of the same politics, we better hunker down. The failure of S-chip and other worthy legislation will be continued for a long and dismal time.

[dgkerns]

There's a factual error in this piece - the White House wants to increase the program by $5B over 5 years, not $5B per year. The CBO says that the program needs $14B over 5 years just to tread water and not disenroll children. The gap between Congress (who voted for a $35B increase over 5 years) and Bush is $30B over 5 years.

[Lane Hudson - Huffpost Blogger]

See Lane Hudson's Profile

Oops. You are right dgkerns. My mistake in misreading the information!

That being said....the $30Billion difference is one month of funding the war. I'd much rather give children healthcare than pay for this war.