Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2007 -- Motion to Proceed

Floor Speech

CHILDREN'S HEALTH INSURANCE PROGRAM REAUTHORIZATION ACT OF 2007--MOTION TO PROCEED -- (Senate - October 31, 2007)

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Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, there are reports in the newspaper about the approval ratings of politicians and political institutions. Certainly, the President has had some problems, has had better days. His numbers are low. The numbers for Congress, in many respects, as an institution, are even lower.

Those of us who serve in the Congress are asked from time to time: What does this all mean? Why are the American people so critical of Congress, and what is it doing?

I think it reflects several points. First, the last election, which changed control of Congress from Republicans to Democrats, many people believed would be a watershed, a real change in direction. They have looked and haven't seen it, particularly when it comes to the war in Iraq. Despite our best efforts in the Democratic majority in the Senate, with only 51 out of 100 Members, we sent the President an opportunity to change the direction of his policy and start bringing American troops home. The President used his power in the Constitution to veto that legislation.

We tried over and over, with all-night sessions, long debates, a variety of amendments and have not been able to break through and come up with a solid enough, strong enough bipartisan majority to change the policies in Iraq.

It is frustrating--frustrating, I am sure, to the American people, frustrating to us in Congress, for some who voted against the war and now believe this war has no end in sight and should be ended soon in a responsible way.

I think that is an indication of one of the reasons why the disapproval numbers for Congress are what they are today.

We tried, however, when it comes to our budget and spending in the Congress, to focus resources on the needs of America. We have a chance to do that. But, unfortunately, we face another veto threat from President Bush.

Our budget that we passed includes a lot of spending that will make a big difference--more Border Patrol agents to protect America, explosives detection machines in airports, research into cancer, diabetes, heart disease, other major killers of Americans, a much stronger food safety inspection system, an issue near and dear to me, energy efficiency and renewable energy projects and tax cuts for middle-class families.

The total difference between our spending and what the President requested is $22 billion out of a national budget that borders on passing a trillion, depending on how one counts. That is eight-tenths of 1 percent of the Federal budget, the difference between the President's request and what we are appropriating. That is less than we spend in 2 months on the war in Iraq. The money we want to spend in America is less than 2 months of the war in Iraq. It is less than half of what the President wants to spend next year for tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans.

We have passed a lot of appropriations bills to meet long-needed, long-neglected wants of middle-class and working families. Unfortunately, the President's priorities are different. There is no clearer contrast in our priorities and the President's priorities than the issue of children's health insurance.

Senator Kennedy has come to the floor, and I am going to yield to him in a moment. He has been a national leader, certainly a Senate leader when it comes to the issue of children's health insurance. Think about this: A great and good and prosperous Nation, America, with 300 million people, has 15 million people without health insurance.

Ten years ago, we said: Let's move forward and do something about it. A Republican Congress passed the Children's Health Insurance Program, and we managed to find coverage for 6.6 million of those kids. Now with a Democratic Congress, we want to continue the program and expand it to cover more children. So we set a goal of 10 million children. That still leaves 5 million uninsured. But 10 million would be insured over the next 5 years. The cost? An additional $35 billion. The way we pay for it is direct: an increase in the Federal tobacco tax with proceeds going to insure children.

We believe this is sensible, keeping in mind the kids we are talking about are not the poorest kids in America. The poorest kids in America are covered by Medicaid. They get help, and I am glad they do. It says something good about our Nation. The kids who are well off, with parents in jobs that have health insurance, have no concern. How about those kids right in the middle? Mom and Dad go to work every single day and don't have the benefit of health insurance. They may make minimum wage or a little better. They don't have any benefits and the kids have no protection.

A child without health insurance is less likely to have a regular doctor, regular checkups, regular immunizations, and less likely to have detected in their early lives medical problems which, if left untreated, become very serious and very expensive.

We wanted to help those kids. So we put a bill together with the support of 18 Republican Senators, all 51 Democrats. We had 69 Senators committed to it. We sent it to the President, and he vetoed it. He said it was socialized medicine. I am not sure what that term means today. Forty years ago, it was the suggestion of too much Government.

What the President doesn't tell us, and should, is this program is not about a government health insurance program. Overwhelmingly, the health insurance for these kids will be provided by private companies that will receive some subsidies, some incentive from the Government to provide this care with the State governments. So it is not socialism, if that is the President's concern.

Secondly, he worried about whether it is fiscally responsible. We pay for it. The President and his war of $169 billion a year is unpaid for. He heaps it on our children and their children by adding to the national debt. We pay for this program.

Finally, this notion that somehow we are going to discourage private insurance for these kids, if the private insurance market was so anxious to cover these kids, they would have been there long ago. These kids have gone months and years without coverage. Now is the time to change it.

The President used his veto pen four times since he was elected 7 years ago--once to veto a change in the war in Iraq, two other times to veto bipartisan-passed stem cell research, and now in vetoing the Children's Health Insurance Program.

Senator Reid, the majority leader, came to the floor yesterday and said: We will give you a little more time to work out our differences with the Republicans, we will have an effort at compromise. They objected to being given a little more time to work this out.

We have tried. We have had good bipartisan support for this bill. We want to bring it across the line. We want to pass a bill either the President will sign or we override his veto, and we are trying to do that.

In closing, because I see Senator Kennedy is here and prepared to speak, it will not be long now, maybe a matter of days, before this President asks for $196 billion for the war in Iraq. Some of us who voted against it are troubled that we continue to see the cost of this war go up in human terms, with almost 3,900 Americans killed, with tens of thousands injured, and who knows how many innocent Iraqis lost their lives, and the war continues to go on.

The good news from Iraq? Oh, they like to tell us the administration has all sorts of good news. The good news is the death rate is down. We have seen ethnic cleansing in neighborhoods and now the vacant neighborhoods where 4 million Iraqis have become refugees. These empty neighborhoods don't have as much fighting. Is that a victory? I am not sure it is.

We need to be more honest with the American people. If the President believes he can ask with a straight face for $196 billion for the war in Iraq, if he can ask for that kind of money to help the people of Iraq, he ought to step back and sign a bill that helps the children of America.

A strong America begins at home. It begins with strong American citizens, strong families, strong neighborhoods, strong communities, and a strong Nation. The President can move us in that direction.

I hope my colleagues in the Senate this week will join us. Let's pass this Children's Health Insurance Program. Let's send it back to the President. Let's hope, as he considers $196 billion unpaid for his war in Iraq, he can find $35 billion paid for the children of America.

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