Joe Barton: “As a husband, as a father, as a former child, I respect very much what we are endeavoring to accomplish today. But we…”

“As a husband, as a father, as a former child, I respect very much what we are endeavoring to accomplish today. But we always have to remember that it is not simply enough to do the right thing; we must do the right thing the right way. And again, that is the purpose of this debate. Much of what we hear outside of these walls tends to mute the serious discussion that we have. I know that following this debate there will be those ads or others that will say that Republicans do not like kids. I assure you, Republicans like kids, and not just medium rare with a side of fries. We do care about the future of children. But it is the comprehensive holistic approach to the care of children which we discuss too little in this body. It is my belief that what we should have done, to truly put poor kids first, was that from the first moments of the first 100 hours this should have been the first bill we could have done. Instead, other bills were passed and billions were spent. We have seen appropriation bills come through this Chamber repeatedly where billions are spent, and there was no talk of putting kids first and helping poor kids have health insurance. And now today we reach the point where the only way we can help poor children is to raise taxes on the American people.”