Children's Health and Medicare Protection Act of 2007

Floor Speech

CHILDREN'S HEALTH AND MEDICARE PROTECTION ACT OF 2007 -- (House of Representatives - August 01, 2007)

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Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, there shouldn't be any doubt here today about what the Republicans are trying to do. They are trying to destroy the SCHIP program.

We spent 18 hours in our committee where they wouldn't let the bill come up. The substitute that they had in the committee would put so many barriers in the program that, in effect, the program would die.

Don't believe them. They don't want to provide the additional funds. They know that this expires on September 30, and it will if we don't do something today; that there will be a million kids that will automatically not have their health insurance.

We're not changing any of the eligibility today. It's they that want to change the eligibility.

The fact of the matter is CBO tells us, and I have it right here, that this bill would cover another 5 million children who are currently uninsured.

Now, my colleagues on the other side know that the States have run out of money. Georgia ran out of money in March. They came to us and begged us for more money. States ran out each month of money. We had to put money in the supplemental appropriations bill because the States ran out of money.

We need a lot more money to make sure that these 5 million kids are covered. They want to stop that. They're not proposing to cover any additional kids. They want to cut that.

There's no illegal aliens covered in this bill. There never were. There's no language in here that says that.

This is not an entitlement. It's a block grant set up by Newt Gingrich. Newt Gingrich was the guy who set it up as a block grant, giving the States flexibility. The States want flexibility. Some of them want to go a little higher. Well, it's George Bush, the President of the United States, that granted the waiver so they could have some adults or kids at higher incomes.

Who are you kidding? This is a Republican program, but you are now walking away from it. You don't want to fund it. You want to deny eligibility. You want to kill the program. That's what you're all about here today.

And don't let anybody kid you. Eighteen hours we had to listen while the bill was being read. Today, they want to delay. They're kidding no one saying that they want an SCHIP program. Don't believe what they say. It's simply not true.

You vote for this bill today to expand this program to provide more kids, not more eligibility. And if you don't, this will die and those kids are not going to have health insurance.

We have health insurance for our kids as Members of Congress. That's okay for our own kids but not for the rest of these poor kids.

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