The Californian - Democrats Put Politics Before Children
By: REP. DARRELL ISSA - Commentary:
As Southern California burned last week, Democrats decided to play hardball politics with children's health care. With seven California Republican congressman leaving Washington to deal with fires in our districts, Democrats unveiled the secret, revised version of their failed State Children's Health Insurance Program government health care expansion plan and, one day later, placed it on the House floor for a vote.
Thirteen California Republicans, myself included, asked the Democratic leadership to postpone the last-minute vote on the new SCHIP bill until the following week, but were rebuffed.
"I don't believe they're going out there to fight the fire," said Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., in pointedly dismissing the request to postpone the vote. "I made it clear that we have an agenda to accomplish," he said on the House floor.
What Hoyer didn't bother to mention in explaining his rush to vote was that Democrats had waited more than three weeks -- since President Bush had vetoed the original bill -- to bring this new proposal to the House floor. During this time, attack ads by Democratic front groups targeted Republicans with tough re-election campaigns for their SCHIP vote.
"Bringing the bill up today, with no time to even read it, is either a terrible mistake or an intentional partisan maneuver," critiqued Rep. Heather Wilson (R-N.M.), a supporter of the Democratic SCHIP proposal.
Rep. Thelma Drake, R-Va., alluded to the television attack ads targeting Republicans when she stated that it appeared Democrats would not postpone the vote "because the ads had already been bought."
"They spent $1.5 million through their various shill outreach groups attacking me and a handful of my colleagues," said Rep. Ric Keller, R-Fla. "But they did not spend five minutes to approach me to ask for my vote."
While millions of poor and truly needy children remain uninsured, Democrats, through their SCHIP proposals, remain focused on milking what they perceive to be a winning political strategy and expanding government-controlled health care to wealthier Americans. The flawed Democratic proposal creates an incentive for middle-class families to drop existing private health coverage and takes away tax dollars that should be used to enroll more children who are already eligible, but not enrolled, in SCHIP.
Republicans have proposed an alternative focusing federal aid on the poorest families, those who make up to 200 percent of the federal poverty level -- a little more than $40,000 in California .
Families making between 200 percent to 300 percent of the federal poverty level, would be entitled to a $1,400 tax credit for all children with health insurance. This incentive would help middle-class families better afford health insurance while eliminating incentives to drop private health insurance and enroll in a government welfare program.
There is widespread and bipartisan support for continuing the successful SCHIP program. If the Democratic leadership cares about insuring poor children and rewarding middle-class families who buy health insurance for their children more than they do about expanding government-run health care and using children as a political weapon, they should work with Republicans to pass a truly bipartisan SCHIP renewal.
Still reeling from their failure to please the left-wing anti-war base, the current Congress has demonstrated an absolute phobia of working with Republicans on an agenda to solve problems Americans care about. Renewing the SCHIP program, making health care more affordable, and election promises to work in a bipartisan manner are among the casualties of this new Congress.
-- Rep. Darrell Issa represents the 49th Congressional District, which includes Temecula, Lake Elsinore , Wildomar and Sun City .