I guess I'm a little confused. Republicans are whining to the press again that Obama has been "unable to bring change to washington". They're upset because the CHIPS program, according to them, enjoys wide spread bipartisan support (even though W vetoed it), and if only those nasty Democrats hadn't insisted on extending coverage to the children of LEGAL immigrants, then they could have voted for it.
But wait a minute. I thought that it was only ILLEGAL immigration that upsets the Republicans, not legal immigration, which they always take great pains to insiste they love! We love legal immigrants! they yell about wildly whenever there is an immigration debate and they are accused of racism for no reason.
And yet...
"The Senate overwhelmingly approved legislation yesterday to provide health insurance to 11 million low-income children, a bill that would for the first time spend federal money to cover children and pregnant women who are legal immigrants.
The State Children's Health Insurance Program, which is aimed at families earning too much money to qualify for Medicaid but not enough to afford private insurance, currently covers close to 7 million youngsters at a cost of $25 billion.
Lawmakers voted 66 to 32, largely along party lines, to renew the joint state-federal program and spend an additional $32.8 billion to expand coverage to 4 million more children. The expansion would be paid for by raising the cigarette tax from 39 cents a pack to $1.
But the political victory may come at a price. The rancorous debate -- on a program that once basked in bipartisan popularity -- raised doubts about whether the two parties can unite to pass broader health reform later this year, several moderate Republicans said.
"This is a very unfortunate beginning," said Sen. Charles E. Grassley (Iowa). The top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, a stalwart supporter of the program, said he was "disgusted" by the way Democratic leaders handled the debate. "It does not bode well for cooperative work in the coming months," he said. But Grassley emphasized that he did not blame Baucus for the change in substance and style.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/30/AR2009013001155.html?hpid=topnews
But wait a minute. I thought that it was only ILLEGAL immigration that upsets the Republicans, not legal immigration, which they always take great pains to insiste they love! We love legal immigrants! they yell about wildly whenever there is an immigration debate and they are accused of racism for no reason.
And yet...
"The Senate overwhelmingly approved legislation yesterday to provide health insurance to 11 million low-income children, a bill that would for the first time spend federal money to cover children and pregnant women who are legal immigrants.
The State Children's Health Insurance Program, which is aimed at families earning too much money to qualify for Medicaid but not enough to afford private insurance, currently covers close to 7 million youngsters at a cost of $25 billion.
Lawmakers voted 66 to 32, largely along party lines, to renew the joint state-federal program and spend an additional $32.8 billion to expand coverage to 4 million more children. The expansion would be paid for by raising the cigarette tax from 39 cents a pack to $1.
But the political victory may come at a price. The rancorous debate -- on a program that once basked in bipartisan popularity -- raised doubts about whether the two parties can unite to pass broader health reform later this year, several moderate Republicans said.
"This is a very unfortunate beginning," said Sen. Charles E. Grassley (Iowa). The top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, a stalwart supporter of the program, said he was "disgusted" by the way Democratic leaders handled the debate. "It does not bode well for cooperative work in the coming months," he said. But Grassley emphasized that he did not blame Baucus for the change in substance and style.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/30/AR2009013001155.html?hpid=topnews
