On Tuesday, MoveOn and other supporters of children's health will be rallying around the country in support of a Congressional override of the President's veto of the SCHIP reauthorization. Just three months' spending on the Iraq war would provide the money needed to fully fund the program for the next five years. The vote in the House is expected Thursday, and it is expected to be close.
Meanwhile, for even less money, Congress has the opportunity to help make sure that kids in Africa can also see a doctor or nurse when they get sick. The Jubilee Act (HR 2634) would cancel the debts of 67 countries currently saddled with debilitating debt interest payments, freeing up resources for children's health.
Ask your Representative to take a small step that would mean so much for so many.
As Celia Dugger reported in the New York Times Thursday, the top killers of children around the world can be prevented with cheap, proven methods, according to the World Health Organization. Pneumonia, treatable with a 58-cent dose of antibiotic syrup, accounts for almost one out of every five deaths of children under age 5 each year. Diarrhea, treatable with 42 cents' worth of oral rehydration salts, was the reason for 17 percent of young children's deaths.
On Tuesday Rev. David Duncombe, a United Church of Christ minister from Washington State who has fasted for more than 40 days while lobbying for the Jubilee Act, will break his fast. More than 14,000 Americans, including four Members of Congress, have fasted as part of the campaign for the bill.
The bill currently has 67 co-sponsors. Three Senators have committed to sponsoring a Senate version, and the House Financial Services Committee is expected to hold hearing soon.
The Jubilee Act of 2007 would cancel the debts of up to 25 additional countries not currently eligible for debt cancellation, end harmful IMF/World Bank economic policy conditionality, and establish an audit of past lending and set more responsible lending practices for the future. Currently, indebted nations spend an average of $100 million each day to service their debts - money they cannot spend on education and health. Cancellation of these debts is needed to help reach the UN Millennium Development Goal of cutting worldwide poverty in half by 2015.
Ask your Representative to co-sponsor the Jubilee Act of 2007.
It's for the chil....whaaaat?!?!!? It's for
the healthcare companies?!?!?!?!? SONOFA...
we got lied to a-GAIN! Dammit!
-Conservatives HAVE to support it. Jubilee is a Biblical mandate found in the same part of thee Bible where they find their justification for their homophobia.
-IMF/World Bank policies are part of the problem! They need to be trashed and done over.
But, the question remains - how can the West act as though Africa owes them ANYthing?
SCHIP is just a thinly veiled attempt to move towards socialized medicine. Almost half the recipients in Illinois are adults. The new bill would provide benefits to families making $83,000/year, prompting and estimated 2/3 to drop their private insurance for taxpayer funded insurance. Oh! and you'd need 22 million new smokers just to pay for it, most opf them likely to be poor.
The SCHIP bill is a bad joke and the "Jubilee act" a worse punchline.