Frank Pallone: “this bill is the result of Republican intransigence. This is a Band-Aid. And I would remind my Republican colleagues who…”

“this bill is the result of Republican intransigence. This is a Band-Aid. And I would remind my Republican colleagues who seem to think that this is good legislation, that every day that goes by, more kids are going to get off SCHIP. They put out that directive of August 17 that says that if a kid's parents lose their job, they would have to wait 1 year before they could get SCHIP coverage. So the bottom line is more kids are going to go off SCHIP. We're just barely paying for the kids that are on it now. They're not willing to do anything. They said that they were willing to negotiate. Well, we had negotiations, our majority leader said, for over 100 hours, and they still could not come up with an agreement. The President refuses to fund anything. He won't pay through a tobacco increase, the only tax increase. The only thing he says he will do is cut programs to pay for expanded SCHIP that would even make it harder, like cutting Medicare. So the fact of the matter is we are stuck with this lousy bill that was negotiated between the White House and the Republicans in the Senate. We don't like it. It's simply a temporary measure, and we as Democrats are committed to the fact that in the beginning of next year we're going to take up SCHIP again. We're going to take up the issue of Medicare to try to prevent the privatization that takes place under the current program. We're determined to correct these programs.”