Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2007 -- Veto Message From the President of the United States

Floor Speech

CHILDREN'S HEALTH INSURANCE PROGRAM REAUTHORIZATION ACT OF 2007--VETO MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES (H. DOC. NO. 110-62) -- (House of Representatives - October 03, 2007)

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Mrs. BLACKBURN. I thank the gentleman from Texas.

Madam Speaker, this veto will be sustained, and I hope it will allow us to return to the core issue of discussing health care for children, needy, poor American children. That is what our focus should be. It should not be about a secret, giant step towards nationalized health care. It shouldn't be about health care for adults or for middle-class families. It should be about meeting the needs of poor American children. That's what the program was set up to do.

Unfortunately, as H.R. 976 is constructed, we are only talking about 800,000 additional children. For all of the hype, for all of the talk, that is what you are talking about. We have seen numerous gimmicks used to try to make this bill work. We have heard about income disregards today. Now, in this bill, there are provisions that would allow you to go to 800 percent of the Federal poverty level. So instead of addressing the needs of poor American children, what we are talking about is providing coverage for families making over $206,500 a year. Madam Speaker, that is not the original intent of this program.

Another budget gimmick, in mid-2012, all of a sudden the funding is going to be cut 80 percent.

Madam Speaker, what is going to happen to SCHIP in mid-2012? How are we going to meet the needs of those children? This is what we need to do; return to the core issue, strip away all of these attached issues, and get back to what we need to do to be certain that we meet the needs of poor American children, not provide health care to illegal immigrants, not provide health care for the middle class.

SCHIP is about those children that are of the working poor, 200 percent of the poverty level. It is a program that deserves to be reinstated under the same rules that it was put in place in 1997.

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