Anna Eshoo: “as the American people listen to us this afternoon as we engage in this great and important debate about our Nation's…”

“as the American people listen to us this afternoon as we engage in this great and important debate about our Nation's budget, it really is a statement of our values. The President came to the Congress, and in his State of the Union Message delivered part of the message, there were 10 million uninsured children relative to health care in our country. The parties came together and said, this is a priority. We then went to write in, to fill in the blank, of how we would plan to insure the 10 million uninsured children in our country. There is only one plan that has been advanced that actually works and reaches out to the majority of the children in our country. It has not created a new entitlement, there are no unfunded mandates, but neither is it a giveaway to our Nation's Governors. It puts children first by building on the public system; by saying to the insurance companies, it says to the insurance companies that you can indeed offer children-only insurance policies. It rewards States that are doing even more for children, and it is the only plan, according to the CBO. The CBO says that the Republican plan will cover only 520,000. That is a deficit for our Nation. I urge that we support this plan. I will not support the budget plan contingent upon this.”