Congressman Roscoe Bartlett Thanks Senate Democrat Leader for Recognizing His "Correct" Vote About the S-CHIP Program
Press Release
Congressman Roscoe Bartlett Thanks Senate Democrat Leader for Recognizing His "Correct" Vote About the S-CHIP Program
Congressman Roscoe Bartlett recorded and distributed a radio actuality today in response to being singled out by Congressional Democrat leaders as a target for special interest lobbying to switch his vote concerning the S-CHIP health insurance program for children of the working poor. An mp3 audio file is available upon request. The statement is below.
"This is Congressman Roscoe Bartlett.
"Congressional Democrat leaders have delayed a vote to override the President's veto of their plan to expand the S-CHIP program. They have singled me out as a target by lobbyists of special interests groups, such as labor unions.
"Only Democrat Congressional leaders could demand that a family earning $82,000 a year could qualify for their expanded S-CHIP program and simultaneously call that same family rich enough to force them to pay the Alternative Minimum Tax. It just goes to show that what Democrats really want is to have the government control how to spend the money that American taxpayers earn.
"I want to thank Senate Democrat Leader Harry Reid for recognizing that I cast the only correct vote in the Maryland delegation against the Democrat version of S-CHIP. I'm proud that I voted to create the bipartisan S-CHIP program in 1997. I support continuing S-CHIP health insurance for all children of the working poor, but that is not what this debate is about.
"Democrats are demanding that S-CHIP be expanded because they want to force government-controlled, taxpayer-paid health coverage onto middle-class and upper-class families who already have private health care coverage that they themselves control. The Democrat S-CHIP bill is a crucial step toward achieving their ultimate goal of "universal health care," that is government-controlled health care that Americans soundly reject."
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