Let them eat SCHIPs

I'm a little late in commenting on President Bush's recent veto of the bill that would have funded the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), because I figured the topic just didn't need any more screaming. Quick refresher: the bipartisan bill would have expanded the long-running health insurance program to include children in families earning up to three times the Federal poverty guidelines (see the chart for more detailed info, but for most of the country that's $61,950 for a family of four). This expansion would have been funded by increases in taxes on tobacco products (somebody in Congress has a wicked sense of humor).

The opponents of the bill argued that the threshold was too high, covering families who could actually afford private coverage. Okay, fair point. Reasonable people can differ on where exactly the cutoff should be, and that should absolutely be part of the debate.

Unfortunately, when you're talking about the far-Right blogosphere, "reasonable" isn't the most accurate description.

Rather than pushing the substantive policy argument (the income level of the covered families), the artists formerly known as the "vast right-wing conspiracy" set about attacking the families who have benefitted from SCHIP, even going so far as to Swift Boat a little kid.

Geez. Most of the time I tune out the screaming heads on both ends of the political talk show spectrum - I just don't feel the need for that kind of negativity in my life. I didn't even know who Graeme Frost was until that whole thing was over. Can we all agree that attacking ordinary people with the same zeal we go after elected officials who've voluntarily put themselves in the spotlight is going WAY too far? What if that were your neighbor, or your church's choir director, or your child's teacher, in Michele Malkin's sights?

At the worst part is that they learned nothing from the Frost family; they're at it again. I generally avoid Salon.com editor Joan Walsh's columns (again with the negativity), but her latest, about another family targeted by anti-SCHIP commentators, is a must-read. Among the things she points out is that no one is claiming that the families covered by SCHIP are impoverished - they're what we call the working poor. THAT'S THE POINT.

When you read the "positions" of so many of the people bashing SCHIP, it becomes uncomfortably clear that classism is still alive and well among a certain segment of conservatives. This is why I will never understand in a million years why so many of the people I knew growing up - people who will work, and work hard, every day of their lives, and do so without complaint - think that the Republican Party represents their interests.

Pay attention to the scorn with which Malkin says that Dara Wilkerson, the waitress referenced in Walsh's story, should've known better than to have a child when she didn't have health coverage through her employer. Oh, right, I guess she should've gotten an abortion. WAIT, no! Can't do that.......I guess people making under six figures just shouldn't have sex.

Once again, I flash back to one of the many days in Mrs. Sawyer's little classroom at East Surry High, when yet another of my conservative-leaning classmates attempts to patiently explain to me how the Democrats want to control our personal lives. Remember that the next time someone lectures you on the choices you should have made in order to be able to spend hundreds of dollars each month on insurance provided by one of President Bush's corporate contributers.

You should have known not to have a child with a congenital birth defect! You should have anticipated that you'd get laid off from your white collar job-with-great-benefits! You should have psychically sensed that that drunk driver was going to plow into your car, leaving your three children with life-long disabilities!

(BTW, this is largely coming from people who didn't have the foresight to anticipate that conquering and rebuilding an entire country would take more than six weeks...but that's neither here nor there.)

A further BTW...the SCHIP bill vetoed by President Bush would have cost $35 billion dollars and insured 4 million American children. Congress authorzed spending two-and-a-half times that amount ($89 billion) in the initial authorization to use force in Iraq. So far, America has lost just under 4,000 soldiers in Iraq. Math isn't my strong suit, but that looks like a hell of a lot more lives potentially saved than lost, at less than half the cost.

UPDATE: Here's a better link to the story about the Wilkerson family that does a good job of refuting the attack made on them by one right-wing commentator.