GOP Attack On The Middle Class

As I'm writing this, the House of Representatives is moments away from voting on the attempt to override President Bush's veto of the SCHIP bill. I think the debate has been impressive, including the arguments of Carol Shea-Porter, a Democrat from New Hampshire. Rep. Shea-Porter noted the irony implicit in her attendance at hearings regarding contractor abuse in Iraq, and here the Administration is striving to deny health care to children whose family is too poor to qualify for Medicaid. She also refuted claims by the Bushies that coverage under this bill would include affluent families, including the charge that children from households with incomes up to $83,000 would be covered in- what is it now, New Jersey or New York (in either case, states with extraordinarily high costs of living)?

The Representatives fighting hard to expand health coverage for children need to be lauded. However, there are two underlying issues which, understandably, politicians from neither side of the issue choose to give voice to.

There is a significant contingent of politician (note especially the Repub Presidential field) which wants as much money and control in the health care system to remain in private hands, notwithstanding the enormous cost to the public and the failure to provide adequate care to Americans generally. But something else is at work here.


Repub conservatives (excluding those wise enough to support override) really are concerned, as they claim to be, that more middle class (though they avoid this term) children would be helped by this bill. As they note, this is a program devised to assist children from families of modest means. Now some people, primarily, though not exclusively, Democrats, want to assist middle class families by the same legislation through the same mechanism. This is beyond a major problem for the Repub Party. The idea that the middle class- always, but especially now- has needs that the working poor traditionally have had is dangerous. The concept that the working poor are different from the rest of us- and that the interests of the middle class are those of the wealthy and of corporate special interests the Repub Party exists to serve- is fundamental to the health and prosperity of the GOP. Start to break that down, and there is trouble (eventually) ahead for the party.

Attack On SCHIP

Expansion of the State Childrens' Health Insurance Program has been vetoed by President Bush, who decried the cost of the program and, in an appearance before the Lancaster (Pa.) Chamber of Commerce and Industry, declared "the intent of the program was to focus on poor children, not adults and families earning $83,000 a year. That doesn't sound poor to me." The bill had passed in the Senate with a vote of 67 to 29, a veto-proof margin. However, it passed the House only by 265 to 159, with the switch of approximately 18 Representatives needed to override a Presidential veto.

There is a chance the veto of the SCHIP Reauthorization Act will be upended. The President's action is extremely unpopular with the nation's governors and the states of California, New York, and New Jersey have announced plans to file suit. Republican legislators are keenly aware of the political danger they face if the President's veto is allowed to stand.

Hopefully, the bill will pass over Mr. Bush's veto and several million more children whose parents are unable to obtain health insurance for them through employment or Medicaid will be covered. If not, however, supporters of the President's values should face attack ads whose potential is unlimited. Certainly, the lack of concern for children will be emphasized, but MainStreetLiberal would suggest that Democrats add something else, such as...

"(insert name of member of Congress) agrees with President Bush that we don't have to provide 8,000,000 uninsured children with the health care they so desperately need. (Member of Congress) says that we don't need to provide health care to children from middle-class families. But (insert name of member of Congress) doesn't agree. He (or she) knows that middle-class isn't rich, and that middle-class children, as well as poor children, deserve to be healthy."

The GOP Problem With SCHIP

So of what relevance is Rachel Maddow commenting of the SCHIP "George Bush discovering fiscal conservatism on this issue would be like you telling me Pat Buchanan discovered multiculturalism?" Because Pat Buchanan, appearing with Maddow on MSNBC's "Hardball," really was crediting George Bush with standing up to Democrats "doubling the size of an entitlement program."

Put aside for a moment the farcical notion that George W. Bush, who took the Clinton budget surplus and turned it into a record budget deficit, cares any more about the size of the deficit* than you and I do about, say, tomorrow's weather in Madagascar. And ignore Chris Matthews saying of Democrats- yes, Democrats- "once again, they're borrowing money saying they're going to some day pay for it." And disregard Pat Buchanan, asked by Maddow "who is paying right now for the 8,000,000 kids who don't have health insurance?" contending families are "paying for it themselves, or getting it free" (sort of like paying for a Persian Gulf War off-budget with a tax cut for the wealthy).

Buchanan inadvertently hinted at the real issue when he complained about "doubling the size of one entitlement program" and railed against the increasing cost of Medicare and Social Security. The problem is this: the State Children's Health Insurance Program works. And it is a government program. And the raison d'etre of the Repub Party is to convince the American people that they should distrust government and instead entrust the private sector government with its functions. So like Medicare and Social Security, the SCHIP program is successful and popular. And it cannot be expanded.


*Yes, he does care about the size of the deficit. He wants it larger, for reason(s) you may already understand.

Quote of the Week:

"George Bush discovering fiscal conservatism on this issue would be like you telling me Pat Buchanan discovered multiculturalism."


-Rachel Maddow of Air America to Chris Matthews on "Hardball" during a debate on expansion of the SCHIP Program, 10/3/07