From Joe Barton, Ranking Member (House Energy & Commerce Committee Republicans)

The ‘C’ in SCHIP Is for Children, Except When It’s Not

According to the states’ budget projections, 13 will spend more than 44 percent of their SCHIP funds in 2008 on people who are neither children nor pregnant women.

Michigan tops the list with 71.6 percent of its SCHIP money earmarked for adults who have no kids. In New Mexico, 52.3 percent of the state’s SCHIP dollars will be spent on childless adults.

The $6 Billion Giveaway: Medicaid and SCHIP for Illegal Aliens

People who broke the law to come to America aren’t eligible for welfare, including Medicaid and SCHIP, and nearly everyone thinks that’s a good idea except Democrats in Washington. They want an SCHIP extension bill that removes the pesky requirement for checking the identity and citizenship of people who apply for Medicaid and SCHIP benefits.

H.R. 976 says that simply writing down a Social Security number is good enough to prove you are a citizen, although the commissioner of the Social Security Administration says emphatically that Social Security numbers are laughable as proof of citizenship because thousands are issued every year to non-citizens. Moreover, the Democrats’ SCHIP bill doesn’t even require that an applicant flash an ID to demonstrate that he or she could be the actual owner of the number.

The Congressional Budget Office estimates that erasing the mechanism that reserves welfare for Americans instead of illegal aliens will cost U.S. taxpayers an extra $3.7 billion in federal spending and $2.8 billion in added state spending.

Neediest Children Left Behind?

Census Bureau data (2004-2006) show that 1 in 5.5 children living under 200 percent of the Federal Poverty Level don’t have health care coverage even though they’re eligible for government programs.

Republicans propose requiring states to cover at least 90 percent of these neediest kids before trying to find any more. The Democrats’ plan has no requirement to cover the poorest kids first. Instead, it just leaves them behind.

I hope Tennessee’s Republican Senators (Lamar Alexander & Bob Corker) reconsider their vote on this bill.  Maybe this is their way of assisting Democrat Phil Bredesen pay off the TennCare debt?

h/t Redstate

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