Sinking SCHIP: A Defining Moment

Townhall.com ^ | October 17, 2007 | Michelle Malkin

[Kaslin]

On Thursday, the House of Representatives will vote on a measure to override President Bush's veto of a massive government-subsidized health insurance entitlement expansion plan. I agree with the Democrats on one thing: This is indeed a "defining moment."

The left-wing elite is in high dudgeon over conservatives who have dared to question the wisdom of extending the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) to middle-class families, adults and even illegal aliens to the tune of $35 billion -- funding dependent on saddling millions of smokers with regressive taxes and maintaining their nicotine addictions.

Liberal columnists E.J. Dionne and Paul Krugman decried Rush Limbaugh, Mark Steyn and other opponents as "meanies and hypocrites" who are "sliming" children. Classless comedienne and "View" television show co-host Joy Behar took to the airwaves to condemn me as a "selfish b----" for challenging Harry Reid's use of an SCHIP expansion poster family, the Frosts of Baltimore, last week. Cable TV Bush-basher Keith Olbermann paraded the Frost parents on television and coaxed them into displaying photos of their children in their hospital beds after a horrible car accident while they castigated conservatives for "distraction" techniques. Never mind that the president's veto does not affect families like the Frosts covered by existing policies.

But here's what the hysterical tantrum-throwers really don't want to reckon with: The Frost parents' status as two property-owning, three vehicle-driving, "intermittent" and "part-time" workers raises fundamental policy questions about which families should benefit from government-subsidized health insurance in the first place -- and whether even better-off families than the Frosts should be added to the public health insurance dole.

Did you know that the vast majority of SCHIP programs currently in place do not have assets tests? What if I told you I drove a Volvo SUV, a Chevrolet Suburban, and a Ford F250 Pickup work truck? What if I told you, further, that I owned a large home and commercial property worth at least $400,000 in total -- property for which I paid a total of $215,000? What if I told you, in addition, that I was resourceful enough to cobble together financing (through scholarships and other means) for private school education for four children? What if I told you that neither I nor my spouse was employed full time? Would you consider my family "exactly the kind" and "precisely the type" of family that should benefit from SCHIP -- which was intended for the "working poor," but has become the nose of the middle-class entitlement camel in the nation's health care tent?

That's what Harry Reid and his socialized health care minions are telling us. And now they demand that we shut up lest we be accused of "Swiftboating" innocent children.

Are Democrats capable of defending their reckless, inequitable agenda without tot-sized human shields? Apparently not. In advance of the override vote, they simply switched flak jackets and brought out a 2-year-old child with a heart defect, Bethany Wilkerson of Florida, to lobby for the override. But like the Frost children, little Bethany would have been covered regardless of the entitlement expansion veto.

The Democrats may believe their Romper Room politics are working. And some queasy Republicans may be tempted to abandon fiscal conservatism for electoral expediency. But a majority of Americans polled by USA Today/Gallup this week -- 52 percent -- agree with President Bush that most benefits should go to children in families earning less than 200 percent of the federal poverty level -- about $41,000 for a family of four. The polls showed that "only 40 percent say benefits should go to families earning up to $62,000, as the bill written by Democrats and some Republicans would allow."

Defining moment indeed: Who represents the truly needy? Who represents responsible taxpayers? Who represents future generations, who would be forced to send their hard-earned money to fund this hugetastic middle-class entitlement explosion? The GOP is already responsible for passing the obscene Medicare prescription drug entitlement expansion -- the largest in the program's history and the true costs of which were suppressed until after it became law.

If Republicans don't have the guts to torpedo the Democrats' SCHIP Trojan Horse permanently, they deserve to lose their seats.

[Ken522]

Go Michelle!

[facedown]

bttt

[bmwcyle]

Why does America elect Communist?

[The Ghost of Rudy McRomney]

Make sure you contact your congress critter on this, especially if you think they’re wavering.

[massgopguy]

Michelle would rip Joy’s hair out by the roots.

[I_be_tc]

later

[EdReform]

Ping

[yldstrk]

If the Democrats only had the ability to think critically..........

[MrB]

Just another example in a long line of examples of how the leftist agenda cannot be argued openly and logically, because the people will reject it every time.

The left always uses some sort of “human shield” to spout their message, and anyone who refutes or questions this “spokesshield” is “mean spirited”.

It has become “obvious to the casual observer” that this tactic is used over and over again.

Now, FReepers, make sure you point this out to everyone you talk to about any topic that the left is using this tactic.

[MrB]

If the Democrats only had the ability to think critically..........

They'd be conservatives.

[The Ghost of Rudy McRomney]

I’d pay to see that. ;^D

[massgopguy]

It’s called “Government by Sob Story.” And Nikki Taxongas is on her way to Washington now. I wonder if she’ll dump the PO Box she’s been using as an address in Lowell, since she really lives in a Town House in Charlestown?

[AU72]

Michelle would rip Joy’s hair out by the roots.

After she rips Geraldo a new one.

[DungeonMaster]

Can anyone tell me when Title19 disappeared. It’s very easy to get your kids covered under that. I’ve been unemployed before and used it for my kids. Has it just disappeared or something?

[gridlock]

It has become “obvious to the casual observer” that this tactic is used over and over again.

We can thank Ann Coulter for that. Ann went after Cindy Sheehan and the Jersey Girls, and paid the price. But all the while the Democrats were punishing her, they were making the point, over and over again, that they rely on Untouchable Attack Dogs (UADs), instead of legitimate argument.

It was a masterful strategy by Ann. She was scourged by the Round-Heeled Media, but has alerted the general public to the use of UADs, and earned the everlasting gratitude of Conservatives everywhere. Now the Democrats are only safe when they deploy their UADs against one another.

[stylin19a]

Rats think people have short memories...and we apparently do.

Remember Al Gore’s old lady who collected cans for food/medicine ? She then promptly left is a tricked out RV ?

How about Wellstone’s funeral memorial ?

oh..never-mind !

[11th Commandment]

Go Michelle!

Agreed, however, I would hope that people arguing against expansion of this program stop and point out the immorality of welfare to begin with.

Walter Williams eloquently argues that the transfer of one's property to another against that person's will is immoral. Our country was founded on the principle of life, liberty, and property.

Socialist and liberals like to point out that welfare is approved via the democratic process. True conservative will counter that the democratic process does not equate to morality and cite examples as slavery and Jim Crow laws. Liberals then, not understanding the constitutional and republican protections will then argue how can then the government justify taxation for such things as defense and roads?

The answer is that the right to life, liberty and property is absolute and inherent. The constitution sets up limits upon which the government can limit those rights. Defense and roads are implicate duties of the congress upon which it can tax the citizenery to carry out its constitutional duty to protect the nation and insure commerence among the states.

[Froufrou]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1909218/posts

“The irony is that as states expand public programs for the uninsured, including many middle-income families, they are weakening private insurance markets through a phenomenon known as “crowd out.” For instance, in May the Congressional Budget office issued a report on the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) that found that “the increase in public coverage [as a result of SCHIP] has been partially offset by a reduction in private coverage.” This may be because SCHIP is cheaper than insurance offered through some employers, leading many parents to refuse coverage.

In fact, “about 60 percent of the children who were eligible for [SCHIP] were covered by private insurance in the year before the program was enacted.” The CBO also estimated that for every 100 new SCHIP enrollees, between 25 and 50 children lost private coverage.”
___________________________________________________________

Am I the only one who sees the waste here?

[AU72]

Remember Al Gore’s old lady who collected cans for food/medicine ?

And whatever happened to that granny the MSM followed in her trek around the country for "Campaign Finance Reform".

[DuncanWaring]

...welfare is approved via the democratic process.

So was the freeing of Barrabas.

[modhom]

If only the POTUS would come out in his speech and call it “romper room politics” the whole world would hear him.

[11th Commandment]

Did you read the rest of my post? It obviously argues your point....

[DuncanWaring]

Yep - I was just phrasing it a different way for reinforcement. ;-)

[mdefranc]

But, but, the Reverend ex-Governor, current-demagogue Mike Huckabee supports the expansion of SCHIP!

[DocRock]

"Are Democrats capable of defending their reckless, inequitable agenda without tot-sized human shields?"

Anyone see a pattern? Clinton, Gore and Kerry all used phony human props to cite their position on health care insurance.

---

During John Kerry's nomination acceptance speech during the 2004 DNC, he trotted out his health insurance "poster child", Mary Ann Knowles. Kerry stated that she had to "keep working day after day right through her chemotherapy, no matter how sick she felt, because she was terrified of losing her family's health insurance". In reality, she had excellent coverage with 26 weeks of paid disability leave, but she chose to work through most of her treatment because her husband was unemployed.

Video of Kerry's Speech

Links to story on FR

---

Al Gore tried this same tactic in 2000 with Winifred Skinner.

Al Gore said, "It brings tears to your eyes. Here's this adorable, elderly woman out in Iowa who's so sick and so poor, that in order to pay for medicines she needs to stay alive, she has to scavenge in a local dump yard for cast-off tin cans."

"She gets a small pension," he said. "But in order to pay for her prescription drug benefits she has to go out seven days a week, several hours a day, picking up cans."

It turns out, as the statement was rectified, Mrs. Skinner goes out zero days a week, for zero hours a day, and that she was only speaking "in the name of" people she assumes must do this.

---

In 1994, Hillary Clinton used Kathy Bush when citing her case as an example of the high cost of medical care.

Later, investigators found the mother guilty of intentionally making her daughter sick and forcing her to undergo more than 40 needless surgeries, in what prosecutors called a case of Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy.

“Forty-two-year old Kathy Bush had been charged with aggravated child abuse and fraud for bilking thousands of dollars from the State of Florida for medical expenses incurred by her daughter, Jennifer. The mother faces up to 45 years in prison.”

Link

[The Ghost of Rudy McRomney]

The RATS didn’t miss a beat once their ‘model family’ was exposed. They quietly have switched to a woman with a baby that has a heart defect. They never stop. During the first Clinton term, they became the party of emotion and manipulation, and they’ve honed it to a science. Too bad our side won’t take lessons.