I’ll start this Monday’s column the way last Monday’s column ended: “Will someone think of the children?” The difference this time is that, though perhaps not as divisive an issue as Japanese animation, the brewing controversy over health care is costing Americans more than crappy cartoons can ever hope to do.
From first aid to Medicaid, from privatized social security to universal coverage, health care is shaping up to be the hot domestic topic in next year’s election. This week, the acronym on the tip of everyone’s tongue is SCHIP. It sounds more like a brain-implant device than a means of providing health care to uninsured children. But that’s exactly what it is. The State Children’s Health Insurance Program, or SCHIP, was created in 1997 to provide coverage to kids who can’t afford health care, but don’t qualify for Medicaid, either.
President Bush opened the month of October with a veto of House Resolution 976, which would have expanded the SCHIP program by $30 billion over the next five years through an increase in the federal cigarette tax. This money would have qualified four million currently uninsured kids for health care. Bush doesn’t whip out the veto card often; in fact, the veto is only the fourth of his entire administration. But that didn’t spare him the wrath of Democratic lawmakers, including Pete Stark, the California Representative who earned last week’s “No you di-int” award when he said this on the House floor Thursday:
“They (Republicans) sure don’t care about finding $200 billion to fight the illegal war in Iraq. Where are you going to get that money? You are going to tell us lies like you’re telling us today? Is that how you’re going to fund the war? You don’t have money to fund the war or children, but you’re going to spend it to blow up innocent people if we can get enough kids to grow old enough for you to send to Iraq to get their heads blown off for the President’s amusement.”
Damn! The first word that crossed my mind after hearing Stark was ‘balls,’ as in, “Wow, that took balls.” Needless to say, there was G.O.P. backlash. John Blunt, the House Minority Whip, said that Stark and the Democratic leadership should be ashamed of themselves. House Minority Leader John Boehner released a statement, saying, “Our troops in Iraq are fighting against Al Qaeda and other radical jihadists hell-bent on killing the people we are sent here to represent… Congressman Stark should retract his statement and apologize to the House, our commander-in-chief, and the families of our soldiers and commanders fighting terror overseas.” Stark’s response to this criticism? “Leader Boehner and his Republican colleagues should apologize for their votes,” he said.
I don’t see anything wrong with Stark’s comments. But maybe I’m wrong. Maybe Stark did cross the line. Still, I find it unlikely that we’ll look back at this war one day and say, “Things we’re going great until that damn Pete Stark shot his mouth off and blew it for everyone.” That’s why I have a very practical solution to the situation – one that will quickly and decisively move the argument away from these insults and back towards helping the American people.
In 1856, Massachusetts Sen. Charles Sumner made a speech condemning violence by pro-slavery agitators in Kansas. Several days later, South Carolina Representative Preston Brooks strode calmly onto the Senate floor and proceeded to beat Sumner senseless with a metal-tipped cane. Assault? Maybe. Effective? Definitely. Sure, Sumner was nearly killed. But he was well enough to return to office just three years later. If representatives Stark and Boehner need to settle deep, ideological differences, why not let them do so with metal-tipped canes of their own? C-SPAN could use the ratings boost, as these “cane-offs” would be broadcast in primetime, complete with pre- and post-fight analysis. Supreme Court justices could even assist as guest referees. After all, nothing says, “I respectfully disagree” quite like wood and metal fracturing your skull.
But the times have changed. Bush’s veto power rules the day, and both sides of the aisle will go back to the books in pursuit of a compromise. Yet, when you figure October polls have Bush’s approval rating between 24 and 32 percent, it’s clear that the president is walking a tightrope. And as it turns out, SCHIP might just be the legislative giant that pushes him and his party over the edge.
[email protected]
Children’s health care may be last gasp for GOP
Daily Emerald
October 21, 2007
0
More to Discover