30-Something Working Group

Floor Speech

30-SOMETHING WORKING GROUP -- (House of Representatives - October 17, 2007)

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. CLYBURN. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the 30-somethings for allowing me to intrude on their discussion here this evening.

I think that tomorrow when we come before the American people to take a vote on whether or not we ought to override the President's veto, it's a very important program. I think it's important for the American people to think about a couple of mischaracterizations that have gone on concerning this program.

First of all, we are hearing our friends on the other side call this Children's Health Insurance Program some kind of step towards socialized medicine. I find that very strange that when the President came before the American people, asking for a second term, at his convention, when he accepted the nomination, he called for an expansion of the Children's Health Insurance Program, and I think we ought to ask ourselves how can a program be socialized medicine for 10 million children but it's not socialized medicine for 6 million children. I think that it says something about the commitment that the President made to the American people and to his own party at his last nominating convention.

Second mischaracterization I think that the American people ought to really think about, and that is the accusation that this Congress, our party, the Democratic Party is ignoring poor children by pushing this program. The fact of the matter is lower-income children will have an opportunity through Medicaid. That's there now. It's been there for a long time.

SCHIP was not designed for that purpose. This program was designed as middle-income relief, relief for middle-income families, for families whose children are in need of health care, but their incomes are a little bit too high for them to qualify for Medicaid but not high enough for them to be able to afford the health care that they need in the private market.

So I think that tomorrow, as we get ready to say to the American people exactly what our values are, I think that the people who are planning to vote to sustain this

veto ought to ask themselves what is it that I'm doing, and I think that what they will be doing would be denying health care, denying to children, they will be denying relief to the middle-income families who work every day trying to make ends meet, but while they're trying to feed their families, to provide for their educations, to shelter them, they do not have enough left to afford the kind of health care that they need.

So I want to thank you all for highlighting this program this evening, and I know that for the 30-somethings it may not be all that important now but for us 60-somethings, this is a mighty important program for our grandchildren, and thank you so much for allowing me to intrude this evening.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source