Kenny Hulshof: “Never in my wildest dreams would I imagine that on a day in August of 1997 that a Democratic President would sign a bill…”

“Never in my wildest dreams would I imagine that on a day in August of 1997 that a Democratic President would sign a bill presented by a Republican Congress, and that that would be a high-water mark as far as consensus between a divided government, 10 years ago, the high-water mark of a divided government coming together to create a solution. I was here to help create the bill. In that instance, a Republican Congress worked with, negotiated with, compromised with the President of the other party to create a solution to the problem of children who had no health insurance. Now, I would say, Madam Speaker, that the 2007 version of the Children's Health Insurance Program is almost unrecognizable from the original bill, and certainly beyond the original intent of that bill. For instance, New Jersey currently has a planned amendment that would use income disregards which would allow it to raise its SCHIP eligibility levels to 350 percent of poverty. That's about $71,000 for a family of four.”