Political Quotes

“I rise today to underscore that all of us, Republicans and Democrats alike, desire to ensure that all children of low-income working families have access to high-quality, affordable health care. But at this time in our economy when deficits threaten to climb to $1.6 trillion, without Republican input or without any debate, the majority has rushed a bill to the floor that substantially expands the reach of this program beyond its original intended purpose. All the while, a substantial portion of the existing target population has never been reached. It is with much disappointment that I stand in opposition to this bill today, because it could have had significant bipartisan support had the majority opened the process to our substantive ideas. Before our ideas and solutions were shut out at the Rules Committee, we sent President-elect Obama and Speaker Pelosi a letter which outlined four central issues that we had hoped would be addressed. First: We believe that the SCHIP bill should follow the original intent of the law. That is to cover children in low-income working families. Second: We Republicans believe that expanding SCHIP should not shift children away from private health insurance options into government-run programs that are funded exclusively by the taxpayers. Instead, we should be providing families who are currently uninsured with more affordable options to better meet their needs, not a one-size-fits-all government solution.”