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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsRepublicans in Congress Are Failing America's Children
Christopher Serrano, 10, winces in pain as a doctor examines his infected ear at Dell Childrens Medical Center in Texas. Christopher and his younger brother stand to lose their health insurance as the CHIP
Children from lower-income families could soon lose access to affordable health care because the Republican leaders in Congress have failed to renew the Childrens Health Insurance Program. This is a travesty.
After passing a lavish tax cut for corporations and wealthy families, Congress hastily left town last month without reauthorizing the federal-state health insurance program, which benefits nearly nine million children. Authorization expired in September, and so far states have kept CHIP going with unspent funds carried over from previous appropriations. Before Christmas, Congress allocated $2.85 billion to the program, saying that the money would take care of the childrens needs until the end of March. But that appears to have been a gross miscalculation, because the Trump administration said on Friday that some states would start running out of money after Friday, Jan. 19.
CHIP was created in 1997 and has helped halve the percentage of children who are uninsured. It has been reauthorized by bipartisan majorities of Congress in the past. But Republican leaders in Congress all but abandoned the program last fall and devoted their time to trying to pass an unpopular tax bill that will increase the federal debt by $1.8 trillion over the next decade, according to a Congressional Budget Office analysis released last week. By contrast, CHIP costs the federal government roughly $14.5 billion a year, or $145 billion over 10 years.
Republicans have held childrens insurance hostage to force Democrats to accept cuts to other programs. Last year, House Republicans insisted that they would reauthorize CHIP only if Democrats agreed to offset spending on the program with cuts to Medicare and a public health program created by the Affordable Care Act. Democrats balked at those demands, given that Republicans did not bother to offset the loss of revenue from their boondoggle tax cuts.
After passing a lavish tax cut for corporations and wealthy families, Congress hastily left town last month without reauthorizing the federal-state health insurance program, which benefits nearly nine million children. Authorization expired in September, and so far states have kept CHIP going with unspent funds carried over from previous appropriations. Before Christmas, Congress allocated $2.85 billion to the program, saying that the money would take care of the childrens needs until the end of March. But that appears to have been a gross miscalculation, because the Trump administration said on Friday that some states would start running out of money after Friday, Jan. 19.
CHIP was created in 1997 and has helped halve the percentage of children who are uninsured. It has been reauthorized by bipartisan majorities of Congress in the past. But Republican leaders in Congress all but abandoned the program last fall and devoted their time to trying to pass an unpopular tax bill that will increase the federal debt by $1.8 trillion over the next decade, according to a Congressional Budget Office analysis released last week. By contrast, CHIP costs the federal government roughly $14.5 billion a year, or $145 billion over 10 years.
Republicans have held childrens insurance hostage to force Democrats to accept cuts to other programs. Last year, House Republicans insisted that they would reauthorize CHIP only if Democrats agreed to offset spending on the program with cuts to Medicare and a public health program created by the Affordable Care Act. Democrats balked at those demands, given that Republicans did not bother to offset the loss of revenue from their boondoggle tax cuts.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/08/opinion/republicans-congress-chip-failing.html
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Republicans in Congress Are Failing America's Children (Original Post)
spanone
Jan 2018
OP
dalton99a
(81,708 posts)1. GOP official policy: "Force them to be born so we can make them suffer"
ProudMNDemocrat
(16,899 posts)2. Republicans in Congress ARE NOT Pro-Life.......
Those of you DUers who live in states dominated by Republicans in the State Houses and at the Federal levels, HOUND your reps and demand action on the behalf of this Nation's poorer children.
They are not Pro-Life if they care so little for children born to poorer parents. They are Pro-Birth/Anti-Abortion ! Challenge them on that.
CrispyQ
(36,567 posts)3. "But hey, we're protecting those fetuses!"
bobbieinok
(12,858 posts)4. GOPer - They may be America's children, but they're certainly NOT MINE
dlk
(11,606 posts)5. Republicans Only See Children as Potential Profit Centers
In a party that is all about the money, Republicans only see children as vehicles to transfer wealth to their cronies. If children can't be made into profit centers, they are off the agenda.