Speech #1100100117

I offered an amendment in February that would have refocus SCHIP to make sure that children in families under 200 percent of the poverty level were covered first. My amendment was rejected by the liberal majority on the Committee. who stated that they had no intent to refocus SCHIP on lower income children. Rather. they planned to continue expanding the program to those well above the poverty levelto include adults and illegal immigrantsas a step toward universal governmentrun health care. In todays Washington Post. liberal columnist E.J. Dionne Jr.. removes any doubt of this goal by writing: "This battle [over SCHIP] is central to the longterm goal of universal coverage." While the press releases about todays bill focus on uninsured lowincome children. the language in the bill is about much more than uninsured lowincome children.