Sen. Merkley Issues Statement on 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
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
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
Let's just take and only count two-thirds of that
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
Now, not so long ago, we had a Presidential campaign, and
This bill, by the way, began 21 years ago. This program, the
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
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
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.
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