Don't Let SCHIP Fall Where It May

I know this is more “echo chamber” time, but we need to keep beating the drum in support of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, especially in light of this propaganda from Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt that appeared in USA Today (particularly this excerpt)…

Ideology is really behind the Democrats' plan. They trust government more than the free choices of American consumers. Some in Congress want the federal government to pay for everyone's health care, and expanding SCHIP is a step in that direction.

First of all, you nitwit, the SCHIP legislation is not “the Democrats’ plan.” It was arrived at through a bipartisan consensus (I realize, though, that those two words aren’t in Bushco’s vocabulary, so I guess your confusion on this is understandable).

Two Senators who have taken the lead in authoring this commendable legislation are Sens. Charles Grassley of Iowa and Orrin Hatch of Utah. And they are Republicans (and here is their response to Dubya’s boneheaded SCHIP antics, from Hatch’s web site)…

“It’s disappointing, even a little unbelievable, to hear talk about Administration officials wanting a veto of a legislative proposal they haven't even seen yet - because it isn't even finalized yet. The President ought to give Congress a chance to offer a proposal first. As Republican leaders on the committee of jurisdiction, we’ve been working day and night to reach an agreement on children’s health insurance legislation because it is imperative that this important program, which has helped so many children, be continued.

And Grassley expressed his frustration and disappointment recently in this story.

Also, I don’t understand how Leavitt can imagine that he can speak with any authority on children’s health issues (his phony baloney job in the Bushco regime notwithstanding, when you read the writeup for Item #10 available from this CAP link, as follows (Leavitt was the former governor of Utah, and as such oversaw that state’s Division of Child and Family Services)…

There is only one way to describe the condition of Utah's Division of Child and Family Services during Leavitt's tenure as governor: reprehensible. From 1993-1996, ten children who were under DCFS care died. Ultimately, the case came to head when the National Center for Youth Law in Oakland, Calif., filed a class-action lawsuit "on behalf of 17 children who had been horribly abused and neglected in Utah's foster care system." The court eventually ruled that "the state had violated the constitutional rights of every child in custody." Though Leavitt's supporters defend him by saying that he had simply been unfortunate enough to inherit the quagmire, the near decade-long period that it took for the state to fall in line with the court settlement – which demanded an overhaul of foster care and an increase in training and case oversight – fell squarely during Leavitt's time as governor. The state's child protection service continues to be monitored to this day.

A prior post from yours truly on this subject, among others related to the ruling cabal, appears here.

Please click here to send a message telling President Stupid Head to fund SCHIP (contact information can be accessed from here). There is no sane, rational reason not to do so (as restated here by Paul Krugman).

And I have a feeling I'll be coming back to this topic again soon, just to warn you.