The Shameful SCHIP Debate

Look, there is a lot of inflated rhetoric surrounding the SCHIP legislation on both sides, but the bottom line is that the SCHIP does exactly what its supposed to do–insure children whose families who are not poor enough to qualify for Medicare and cannot afford or qualify for private insurance. Its not a perfect bill, but name me one of those and I’ll give you a personal foot massage (or send Bjorn the Houseboy). States have some say in how the program is used in their state and that’s where you get some of the variation in income distribution for instance.The SCHIP is not socialized medicine, it is a government financed program that utilizes private health care. And the reason the country needs an expansion of the program is because the private health care industry is pricing working families out of health care coverage. In other words, the SCHIP exists because of the failure of the free market to solve this problem. We have a growing number of uninsured children in this country and most of use agree that it just makes sense to do our best to take care of them. If the private health care industry didn’t fail these children in the first place, we wouldn’t need a program like SCHIP to fill the gap that Medicare can’t fill.For a great roundup of the facts and myths in the SCHIP debate, visit OpenCongress and read Ruth Marcus’ editorial.Will Dean Heller change his mind about his vote on SCHIP? I have my doubts but there are lot of people trying to help him come to the right decision like Americans United for Change and Graeme Frost. As a result of Frost’s radio broadcast testimonial in favor of SCHIP, the disabled 12 year old and his family are now considered a legitimate target by Senators and other politicos, and whacked out bloggers like anti-stalking Michelle Malkin who, surprise, surprise, stalking Frost and his family. I don’t know about you, but that is one of the scariest things I can think of and I’m an adult. Not only does all of this cross the line of decency, it crossed the line of sanity. If you want to disagree with someone, disagree with them, but to launch an attack against private citizens whose only crime was to express public gratitude for a government program that did exactly what it was designed to do seems beyond the pale. And to add insult to scare tactics, the information that Malkin and her cohorts published about Frost and his family was, for the most part, incorrect. Malkin’s argument seems to be that the Frosts made a choice to buy rental property a car rather than health insurance. But the truth is that the Fosters were denied the health care coverage they want to purchase because of the pre-existing conditions of their seriously injured children. As a friend of mine from the UK says: I may have to wait to get arthritic hip fixed, but I won’t have to make the choice between walking and going bankrupt.

Yes, that’s right. Bloggers, allegedly egged on by a U.S. Senator’s office mounted a campaign to malign an innocent disabled child, his sister, and their parents all to prove that they didn’t deserve government assistance through the SCHIP program. Why? Because they don’t think anyone deserves anything.

And Mitch McConnell has some serious explaining to do because it appears that his office may have been playing or about to play an active role in stirring up the campaign against the Fosters. I defer to the Beacon on this one:

The attacks from the Republicans are Ad Hominem at its worst – those directed at a child, and his family who sought only to promote the well being of other families. However, they are also the most commonly applied these days when the GOP finds itself supporting increasingly unpopular positions. There’s an old line that goes: If you can’t attack the facts, attack the witness.” However, any credible member of the legal profession will aver that this is the weakest of all possible positions. The number of times the GOP has resorted to Ad Hominem attacks of late is perhaps a rather good indication of the paucity of their factual arguments, and the weakness of their cases.

An interesting point highlighted by the Baltimore Sun article is that conservatives were more concerned that the family’s financial situation wasn’t portrayed completely than they were about arguing the merits of extending SCHIP coverage. This, again, illustrates the poverty of the arguments the Republicans can muster in support of the President’s veto.

The case against SCHIP also employs another disutopian concept: The Great Lie. Time after time right wing Republicans contend that the expansion of the SCHIP program will result in families making $83,000 annual would be eligible for assistance. Time after time reputable organizations and institutions refute the claim and note that there are Zero families with those resources eligible for the program. It doesn’t matter to the Party of Big Father: “One hundred repetitions three nights a week for four years,…. Sixty-two thousand repetitions make one truth.” [Brave New World]

It’s difficult to watch the Party of Lincoln, the one that promoted the progressive policies of Theodore Roosevelt, devolve into a shrieking mob of hate and vile filled “flying monkeys, controlled by the Golden Hat” ever eager to sublimate their individual values and liberty in service of Big Daddy Government, and willing in the process to swallow whatever lies can be repeated to them often enough to validate their fears and justify their hate.

When do the thinking and feeling citizens of this nation finally turn their backs on such disgusting tactics? It will only change if we manage to communicate that we want it to change. Its time to make those who participate in such politics of hate feel our wrath. You can start by calling Dean Heller’s office:

Washington D.C. Office 1023 Longworth HOB Washington, DC 20515 202-225-6155 (Office) 202-225-5679 (Fax)		Reno Office 400 S. Virginia St., Suite 502 Reno, NV 89501 775-686-5760 (Office) 775-686-5711 (Fax)
Elko Office (Rural Office) 405 Idaho St., Suite 214 Elko, NV 89801 775-777-7920 (Office) 775-777-7922 (Fax)		Las Vegas Office 600 Las Vegas Blvd., Suite 680 Las Vegas, NV 89101 702-255-1651 (Office) 702-255-1927 (Fax)

Similar Posts:

• Dean Heller No Vote On SCHIP: Let The Pressure Begin
• E.J. Dionne on SCHIP
• For Once, Broder Has A Point

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