Sen. Merkley Issues Statement on Children’s Health Insurance Program

WASHINGTON, Jan. 9 -- Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Oregon, issued the following statement, which was published in the Congressional Record on Jan. 8, on the Children's Health Insurance Program:

Mr. President, 100 days is a significant period of time--significant, particularly, because it involves the health of our children, which has been neglected over the last 3 months plus. How is it that this Chamber managed to go more than 3 months and not get in place a permanent expansion or a 5-year expansion of healthcare for our Nation's children?

Well, I can tell you why. It is because my colleagues on the majority side of the aisle here in this Chamber had a different bill that they were immersed in and that was a healthcare bill that would be better termed a health destruction bill because it would have wiped out healthcare for somewhere between 20 and 30 million Americans, and eventually version No. 5 of that bill died here in the Senate.

Then my colleagues across the aisle said: Well, we have another beautiful idea. We are going to do a tax bill that will deliver trillions of dollars to the richest Americans. Well, our Constitution was crafted around the vision of government of, by, and for the people, but my colleagues across the aisle like a different version of governance. They like governance by and for the powerful and the privileged.

So here they have this tax bill, and this tax bill has provisions like eliminating the dynasty loophole so wealthy families can pass their dynasty inheritances from one generation to the next without ever paying capital gains. They had a provision that they wanted to change the tax brackets for the wealthiest Americans. They wanted to have corporations, which have paid a smaller and smaller and smaller share of the costs of the infrastructure and the healthcare and the education of America, to pay even less. They had a provision where passthrough corporations would get a sweetheart rate. If you add up these provisions, they total over $3 trillion. Now, not all of it goes to the wealthiest 1 percent, but most of it does, and most of it goes to the wealthiest 10 percent.

Let's just take and only count two-thirds of that $2 trillion. Now, let's think about that number. That is a number that we really can't imagine. How many grains of sand are on this beach? You just can't get your hands around that kind of money--$2 trillion to the richest Americans. So let's divide it by the number of American men, women, and children in our country, and what do you end up with? You end up with the fact that that bill that my colleagues across the aisle were so insistent on passing delivers the equivalent of $6,000 for every man, woman, and child in America to the very richest Americans.

This bill was not about delivering benefits to the richest Americans. This bill was not about delivering benefits to the privileged. This bill was not about making the powerful more powerful. This bill was about children, and so it got set aside, one day after another after another, and we are at 100 days and counting.

Now, who are these children? These are the children of families who are the working America. They don't qualify for Medicaid--in Oregon that is the Oregon Health Plan--because they are doing a little bit better than that, but not well enough to afford regular insurance in America. These are the children of the working poor.

Now, not so long ago, we had a Presidential campaign, and President Trump campaigned on helping working families. But where was President Trump? President Trump was all immersed in the same tax bill for the privileged and the powerful, and he didn't say anything about trying to make this happen for our children of working families.

This bill, by the way, began 21 years ago. This program, the Children's Health Insurance Program, or CHIP, was forged in bipartisanship. This bill was the product of Senator Ted Kennedy and Senator Orrin Hatch, working together to say that we shouldn't allow children of low-income families to go without healthcare. Why is that? Well, because they knew it profoundly affects the quality of life of that child. We want to invest in those children. We want them to be successful. We want them to have strong futures. We don't want them to go without doctor's visits when they are sick. We don't want them to go without vaccinations and contract terrible illnesses. We don't want them to go without dental care and have their teeth destroyed even before they reach adulthood. No, we are going to take care of those children.

This bill was forged in bipartisanship back when both sides of the aisle seemed to care about the vision of government of, by, and for the people, but that vision has been disappearing. There is probably no better symbol of that than this session and the leadership of this body being obsessed with benefits for the best off while ignoring this bill for our children.

Now, it hasn't been completely ignored. The Finance Committee has acted. There is a bill called the KIDS Act, or the Keep Kids' Insurance Dependable and Secure Act. Once again, Senator Hatch was right in the middle of this, partnering with Senator Wyden from Oregon. Again, it is bipartisanship at the committee level. They passed it out, and they passed it out unanimously, but we don't see the KIDS Act getting passed here on the floor of the Senate.

So let's change course. Let's try to remember that this Nation was founded on the vision of distributed power among the citizens so that it will continue to make decisions by and for the people, not by and for the best off in our society. Let's try to reclaim that vision, and let's start by passing this bipartisan bill, forged in bipartisanship and passed out of the Finance Committee in bipartisanship. Let's get it to the floor, and let's pass it now. Let's not let this 100 days become 105 or 110 or 130. Let's get it passed now.

Now, in the continuing resolution there was a little short patch that said: Well, we are going to make sure the States that are running out of money right now for a couple of months will not go under. This is not the type of bill that we should have for a few weeks or a couple months. Quite frankly, I heard lots of folks on this floor saying that they were so excited about this tax rip-off to give money to the powerful because the powerful need predictability, they need stability, and they need to know what the tax rules are a long time into the future. Well, struggling families would like to have some stability, not have their children be a bargaining chip in some broader vision of securing even more benefits for the powerful at the expense of working Americans.

Let's put aside that vision of using our kids as a bargaining chip and pass this bill and get it to the President's desk.

Thank you, Mr. President.