All those against poor kids, vote ‘nay’

[Sapphire Blue]

All those against poor kids, vote ‘nay’
Monday, September 17, 2007, 12:27 PM
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

House and Senate negotiators are working on a compromise over how much the government should spend on programs that, like Georgia’s PeachCare, provide health insurance to poor children. And Sen. Saxby Chambliss has some election-year figurin’ to do.

House and Senate negotiators worked through the weekend on a compromise funding bill for SCHIP, the States Children’s Health Insurance Program. But reports on their efforts indicate the measure still contains some of the poison pills that led Chambliss - and fellow Republican Sen. Johnny Isakson - to vote against it and then come home to explain how they really don’t dislike poor kids.

The compromise, still a work in progress, would expand SCHIP by about $35 billion over five years, raise tobacco taxes to pay for it and provide insurance for another 4 million kids. It would not tinker with Medicare to fund it, as the House proposed.

President Bush repeated his threat to veto the measure.

Chambliss, up for re-election next year, now has to figure out how to fit “I voted against a tax increase, wild expansion of government-run health care and a subsidized insurance for the middle class, not against kids” on a bumper sticker.

As Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.) of Illinois, leader of House Democrats, told the New York Times, Republicans need to back the bill. If they don’t, or Bush vetoes it, he said, “It’s a political victory for us.”

Certain sectors are asking all involved to keep a lid on the politics. “For health and moral reasons, Congress must pass and the President must sign a reauthorization of SCHIP by Sept. 30, 2007,” wrote Govs. Sonny Perdue of Georgia and Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas to House and Senate leaders of both parties, in letter last week.

Perdue is chairman of the Republican Governors Association. Sebelius is his equivalent on the Democratic side. The pair demanded that all involved “not allow partisan politics to thwart continuation of this vital program.”


http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/shared-blogs/ajc/politicalinsider/entries/2007/09/17/all_those_against_poor_kids_vo.html

[fedupfisherman]

1. Raising tobacco taxes is not the answer

The number of folks smoking is dropping.

How about taxing fast food (McDonalds, Carls Jr, ect) instead to fund it??

[Hippo_Tron]

2. Why does Rahm Emanuel need to state the obvious?

Of course it's a political victory. It's also harder to capitalize on that victory when they openly acknowledge that we're going to play politics with it.