Steve Kagen: “I thank our leadership for offering an opportunity, not just this evening, but during this next month for our Nation to…”

“I thank our leadership for offering an opportunity, not just this evening, but during this next month for our Nation to begin to answer the question of our time, and that question is this: What kind of Nation are we when we turn our back on our children on whose future we all depend? And what kind of President would turn more towards saving the profits of a corporation than the lives of our children? The SCHIP bill is good for our Nation's health. It is good for our children. It is far more economical to have children be seen by their physicians in their doctor's offices than in the emergency room. It just makes sense. But sometimes I am coming to find here, if it makes sense, it may not happen while we have the President that we do. I have been witnessing a great deal of misinformation about this bill. I have read every single page of the SCHIP bill, and I have heard the opposition in the minority speak up regarding with what I call misinformation. The fact is that this bill provides for children who are 19 years and under, and yet I have heard them say age 25. I have read the bill and it says it is two times poverty, $41,000 of annual income, and yet I have heard them stand up and claim that it will cover people up to $83,000. That is misinformation. I have heard them claim it is not really private health care but the slippery slope to socialized medicine. Well, we don't need socialized medicine in America. This is private health care.”