Economic Downturn Adds Urgency to SCHIP Veto Override
January 23, 2008
UPDATE: House Republicans have again narrowly sustained President Bush's veto, with a vote of 260 in favor of passage and 152 against, despite the veto-proof margin in the Senate.
The House is currently debating the override of the President's veto of the revised bipartisan SCHIP (State Children's Health Insurance Program) bill. The President's veto on December 12 denied health care to children of hardworking families across America just as the country began experiencing an economic downturn, with families increasingly struggling with the costs of heat, food, gas and health care.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi speaks in favor:
| Speaker Pelosi: "The issue comes down to what is happening in America's households today. Unemployment is up, housing starts are down. The price of gasoline and food and health care is up, the stock market is down. So the indicators that some that are felt very closely and intimately by America's working families and some that are felt by our economy, all point to the need for us to take a new direction. " |
Rep. Frank Pallone (NJ-06) speaks in favor:
| Rep. Pallone: "Here we have the Republican Administration making it more difficult for states to cover children, at the same time as the need becomes greater every day. It is an absolute disgrace in my opinion that this bill was vetoed. It should pass today, because of the need. And I call upon the Administration to stop this negative effort that makes it more difficult for kids to get coverage." |
Rep. Charlie Rangel (NY-15) speaks in favor:
| Rep. Rangel: "It would just seem to me that if it's recognized that our states are going to go into deficit, our governors are going to have serious problems, and that it is very possible if not likely that services for our kids will be further cut under Medicaid, it would seem to me that a legitimate argument could be made that by providing care for these 11 million children it allows the parents to know that they'll be able to be more productive knowing that their kids are covered by health insurance." |
Extended transcript:
"I stand in support of overriding the President's veto, not for the reasons given by Chairman Dingell -- that it's the right and moral position -- because that has existed all of the time and yet we've been unsuccessful. But I would say to the gentleman from Texas that since the last time this has come up, the President has admitted we are going toward a recession and that economy may be jeopardized unless the Congress supported a stimulus package. It would just seem to me that if it's recognized that our states are going to go into deficit, our governors are going to have serious problems, and that it is very possible if not likely that services for our kids will be further cut under Medicaid, it would seem to me that a legitimate argument could be made that by providing care for these 11 million children it allows the parents to know that they'll be able to be more productive knowing that their kids are covered by health insurance. It's sad that the poor now have to be used merely as a vehicle to stimulate our economy but had we taken care of these people... perhaps we'd be not going through this struggle. So it occurs to me that this is another opportunity that the minority would have, not just to do the moral thing but to do the economic thing, and to be of some assistance to the governors who are screaming out for the continuation of this program, indeed the expansion of it."