Posted on 10/09/2007 5:21:39 AM PDT by radar101
ABC News' Rick Klein Reports: With debate raging in Washington over children's health insurance, congressional Democrats found a new way to make their case for an expansion last weekend: Rather than have a senator or a congressman respond to President Bush's weekly radio address, they decided to have a child who was helped by the program speak directly to the public.
But the 12-year-old boy whom Democrats chose as their poster child is now at the center of a firestorm in Washington and beyond. Conservative bloggers who uncovered some details of the family's finances are blasting the family, calling the fact that they rely on federal insurance an example of how the State Children's Health Insurance Program has expanded beyond its original intent.
According to Senate Democratic aides, some bloggers have made repeated phone calls to the home of 12-year-old Graeme Frost, demanding information about his family's private life. On Monday, a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid accused GOP leadership aides of "pushing falsehood" in an effort to distract from the political battle over S-CHIP.
"This is a perverse distraction from the issue at hand," said Jim Manley, a spokesman for Reid, D-Nev. "Instead of debating the merits of providing health care to children, some in GOP leadership and their right-wing friends would rather attack a 12-year-old boy and his sister who were in a horrific car accident."
Manley cited an e-mail sent to reporters by a Senate Republican leadership aide, summing up recent blog traffic about the boy's family. A spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., declined to comment on Manley's charge that GOP aides were complicit in spreading disparaging information about Frosts.
In making the case for a proposed expansion of the S-CHIP program, Democrats found a boy who seemed like an ideal poster child in Graeme Frost, a Baltimore native whose family does not have private health insurance.
When Graeme and his sister were seriously injured in a 2004 car crash, their parents relied on S-CHIP coverage to help them recover. After House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office became aware of the Frosts through a healthcare interest group, FamiliesUSA, Democratic leaders turned to Graeme to deliver the party's weekly radio address Sept. 29.
"If it weren't for CHIP, I might not be here today," Frost said in the address, which was written by Senate Democratic aides. "We got the help we needed because we had health insurance for us through the CHIP program. But there are millions of kids out there who don't have CHIP, and they wouldn't get the care that my sister and I did if they got hurt."
But after a largely positive story about Frost appeared in the Baltimore Sun, conservative-leaning bloggers began focusing on details of Frost's family situation. They suggested the family makes the conservative argument -- that the children's health insurance program has strayed from its original purpose by subsidizing healthcare for middle-class families, not just poor children.
A blogger on FreeRepublic.com discovered that Frost and his sister, Gemma, attend a private school where tuition costs $20,000 a year. Their father, Halsey, is a self-employed woodworker, meaning that if his family doesn’t have health insurance, it’s because Halsey Frost -- as his own boss -- chooses not to purchase it for himself.
"One has to wonder that if time and money can be found to remodel a home, send kids to exclusive private schools, purchase commercial property and run your own business . . . maybe money can be found for other things," a blogger with the handle "icwhatudo" wrote on FreeRepublic.
That posting was widely circulated in the blogosphere, making great fodder for conservatives who argue that President Bush was right to veto the Democrats’ bill expanding S-CHIP.
"People make choices and it's clear the Frosts have made choice to invest in property and a business, but not in private health insurance," Mark Tapscott, editorial page editor of The Washington Examiner, wrote on his blog.
But Manley say conservative bloggers didn't dig deep enough. It turns out that the Frost children attend Baltimore’s Park School on near-full scholarships; they pay roughly $500 per child per year in tuition, he said.
Like many small-business owners, Halsey Frost can't even afford to provide health insurance to himself, Manley said.
"Last year, the Frost's made $45,000 combined," Manley said. "Over the past few years they have made no more than $50,000 combined depending on Halsey's ability to find work."
The Frost family did not immediately return calls seeking comment.
“Manhattan, NY eh? Why do I smell a hillrat?”
I ran his name- he’s wealthy, donates to charity, and has a pretty successful artist for a wife.
I ran opensecrets, and could find no political donations from the dad, the son, the wife, or names associated with them.
A. Corwin Frost
I am. This father is failing his children. Making sure your children stay healthy and can be treated when injured or sick is just as important as buying food for them. IF YOU CHOOSE A JOB THAT DOES NOT ALLOW YOU TO DO SO, that is your responsibility, not mine.
While I agree with your points, I say the bigger issue is the Dumbocrats' insistence that this family deserves your and my money.
The 'Rats need to quit whining about getting caught. When they pushed this kid up to the mike and had him deliver their weekly radio speech, they made him and his family fair game for public source research and revelation.
Even if mom and dad made 'only $45K'. Health Insurance for young kids is DIRT CHEAP. I just got a new Blue Cross Blue Shield policy for our 24 yo daughter at $69.00 a month. I can't imagine two pre-teens costing more than $50-$60 stinking bucks -- for both.
There is absolutely NO REASON they were not privately insured prior to this car accident. (guess dad was too busy playing with his lathe)
However, they do not own an expensive home on scholarship, they do not own two businesses on scholarship, they do not own commercial properties on scholarship.
Moreover, I find it hard to believe that someone in medical publishing in Baltimore makes a whole lot less than $40,000 per year.
It looks to me like the income they declare for tax purposes is basically her income, and whatever cash they pull out of the business is either unreported or - more likely given the Frosts' social pedigree - carefully sheltered through an LLC structure.
I have a simple question?
Does a $40,000 scholarship (two kids remember) have any taxable value or monetary value when it comes to deciding weather or not they should receive government funded health insurance?
Is money unspent due to a scholarship have any value?
So, you still write it off as a personal deduction. Its not like he has to pay the full amount.
Pray for W and Our Troops
So this reporter, on a Dem staffer's words, claims the Frost children are granted almost full scholarships -- for $20,000 per kid, per year?
I find that hard to believe. Exclusive private schools, in my observation, usually will NOT give scholarship money to white kids, no matter how needy. I know this to be true for Ivy League colleges.
Michelle Malkin had a bit on the "scholarship" story on her blog. Malkin --doing the legwork DBM reporters won't do-- paid a visit to the tenant who shares the commercial building the Frosts own. The tenant's name is Reilly.
Reilly told Malkin that he believed the Frost's wealthy parents paid the childrens' tuition at the Park School.
Now the tenant, Reilly, could be wrong about that. But he's friendly with the Frosts; so what motive would he have had to make it up?
I'd also like to know if the tenant (Mr. Reilly) pays rent to the building's owners -- the Frosts.
Nothing new there, though. Democrats want everyone's everything, so that they have complete power over who gets what.
Socialists always use emotion, rather than fact, to get people to "see it their way". That is how people fall for this crap.
The fact that they are using an injured child to manipulate the public is despicable, but certainly not surprising.
The parents are, at best, liars. However, I don't blame the kids. When I was 12, if my dad told me we couldn't afford something, I believed it. I didn't know enough about my family finances nor did I have enough life experience to question my father.
For one thing, there's a good chance the family has been engaging in some serious tax fraud.
They come from aggressively social-climbing parents, so I am guessing they have had cutting-edge tax advice.
And if not, then they have been clearly gaming the system in order to have their childrens' medical bills paid by taxpayers who are far less well-off than they are.
That, I believe, describes it in a nutshell.
I would guess that few upper middle class folks in Maryland are even aware that there is no means test for free health insurance - and even if they knew, many of them would rather pay their own way that shamelessly comb the system looking for handouts.
Another possibility here (and I don't necessarily present as a criticism, since I've looked into the possibility of doing something like this myself) is that the children go to the school on a scholarship, and their wealthy grandparents make substantial (tax-deductible, of course) contributions to the school every year.
"I ran his name- he’s wealthy, donates to charity"
I wonder if one of the charities is FamiliesUSA?
Also, here for the direct info:
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0CE7DC1431F933A15751C1A964958260
Leftists ALWAYS snipe from cover - because their ideas can’t stand open honest debate.
Of course, it will be played up as “mean” for anyone to question their “cover victim”.
I wuld NOT take anyone’s word for it that these kids are going to Park for $500 per year.
It is very rare for that kind of money to be given out at the middle school level.
This is wonderful; only in America could this have happened. We have the wealth and power and compassion to help kids, even when their parents don’t insist on seatbelts, or pay for insurance. The original unexpanded SCHIP undoubtedly picked up much of the cost.
http://www.manchesterandmtns.com/carshow/carshow-winners.html Winner with a ‘56 classic car
http://www.risd.edu/trustees_staff.cfm honorary trustee, RISD
http://www.bronxvilleschoolfoundation.org/Donors.htm gave a “foundation level grant”
http://www.christchurchbronxville.com/childcenter/index.html Founded a child care center at a church
http://www.concordia-ny.edu/assets/pdf/who_we_are/publications/newyorker/newyorker_05_fall_02.pdf “Fellow” level donation
The scholarships are based on need.
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