The SCHIPs Hitting The Fan

October 14, 2007

As most have heard by now, President Bush vetoed the bill sent to his desk recently to reauthorize the SCHIP (State Children’s Health Insurance Program) program. Democrats are in a feigned tizzy as the veto is what they were seeking so they could have a campaign point to show how evil and heartless Republicans are, even though many Republicans joined in their acceptance of the flawed bill.

This past Friday, October 12, I received another one of those pesky emails from House Speakerette Nancy ‘the Stretch’ Pelosi titled “Heartless,” where she begins, “President Bush must have forgotten the compassionate part of "compassionate conservative" yet again when he vetoed legislation that would have provided health care for 10 million American children.” Further on she adds, “George Bush could have done the right thing. Instead, he used his pen to say: I forbid 10 million American children from getting the health care coverage they deserve.”

As expected, the email is all about how “Heartless” Bush is and the need to elect more Democrats so children can receive healthcare. What isn’t said is heavily flawed bill was sent to Bush intentionally to draw a veto. Included in her email are links to “15 targeted Republicans” to encourage them to override the veto, knowing that most likely they won’t.

My friend Spree of Wake Up America has a post up detailing the flaws in the SCHIP bill and what must be done. Facts about SCHIP. Included is contact numbers I encourage all to use to maintain the veto of this fatally flawed piece of legislation.

Since Bush vetoed this faulty bill, Democrats have acted as expected by their counter measures campaigning against George Bush. This was shown today in an interview with Democrat Steny Hoyer on Fox News Sunday. In the interview with Chris Matthews, he stated, “…what this program does is exactly what the president said he wanted to do when he was campaigning in 2004. He said he wanted to add millions of children currently eligible but not included under the child health insurance program to the program.”

Earlier, Republican John Boehner said, “Over the 10 years we've had the program, here's what's happened. We have 500,000 eligible children who have not been signed up for the Children's Health Insurance Program, and yet there are 700,000 adults on the program.

As an example, in Minnesota, 87 percent of the people enrolled in the Children's Health Insurance Program are adults; 66 percent in Wisconsin.”

“And what Republicans are saying is, "Let's work together. Let's reauthorize the program. But let's make sure that poor kids come first."”

“What we don't want is what usually happens here in Washington. You create a new program, and all of a sudden it becomes something far different than what it started out to be.”

Hoyer, after proclaiming Boehner is wrong about the adults and stating the Democrats have penalized states that did have adults on it, added, “This is focused on children of families who are not poor enough to be on Medicaid, and not wealthy enough to afford insurance.”

To show their disdain for Bush’s veto, Democrats aired a 12 year-old in a shameful display of using a child to further their agenda. Graeme Frost describes an auto accident he was in 3 years ago and that the SCHIPs Program paid his medical bills. Frost said, "I was in a coma for a week and couldn't eat or stand up or even talk. My sister was even worse. My parents work really hard and always make sure my sister and I have everything we need, but we can't afford private health insurance."”

With a minimal amount of research it was soon found that little Graeme and his sister each attend the exclusive Park School in Baltimore, MD, a private school, at a cost of $20,000 each per year.

In a Baltimore Sun Article earlier stating about his upcoming claims against Bush’s veto, the claim is made that his parents, “Bonnie Frost works for a medical publishing firm; her husband, Halsey, is a woodworker. They are raising their four children on combined income of about $45,000 a year. Neither gets health insurance through work.”

I’m no Mathematician, but simple arithmetic tells me it would be very difficult for 6 people to survive on the $5,000 a year after taking out the $40,000 tuition needed to keep Graeme and his sister in the exclusive Park School in Baltimore.

The article also states the obvious that, “Senate staffers wrote the script for Graeme.” I say obvious due to Graeme also saying, "I'm guessing he wants this money for Iraq. Our future isn't in Iraq. It's here."

Every time I think Democrats can’t sink any lower or become more shameless, they do it.

Not mentioned in the Baltimore Sun article is that Halsey Frost has owned his own company "Frostworks,” since their marriage was announced in 1992 or that he employed his wife, Bonnie, as bookkeeper and operations management up until 2007, when she joined the medical publishing firm.

A company known as DIVERSIFIED INDUSTRIAL DESIGN CENTER LLC purchased the building the Frost’s Woodworking operates out of in 1999, for a cost of $160,000 and with a mailing address the same as the Frost household.

This family “surviving on just $5,000 per year” lives in a 3,040 Square Foot house where neighbor’s homes have been selling for over $400,000.

Maybe the IRS should be looking into the income of this “poor” family that cannot afford health insurance for their 4 children that we taxpayers must foot the bill for.

My thanks to the poster “icwhatudo” from Free Republic for their research into this.

If I, with my $40,000 actual yearly salary can afford Health Insurance for my wife, surely the Frosts can come clean about their own income and purchase it for their family and not have taxpayers footing the bill for what is clearly a very upper middle class family.

President Bush was right to veto this expansion of the SCHIPs bill and his veto must be upheld. It is nothing more than a sly attempt at getting a foot in the door for Socialized Medicine, should it pass. Mostly, it is to get attacking points to demonize Bush and Republicans as the Democrats continue their Putsch for more and more power.

I urge you to use the contact numbers at the link above to Spree’s Wake Up America and encourage our Representatives to hold firm on the veto. We taxpayers will pay for truly needy and poor people, but why should we be paying for those whose income is most likely three to four times what our own is and who could afford health insurance, if they wanted to?

Lew

UPDATE: My assessment of the Fosters available income is wrong. By that I mean I have learned that the $20,000 tuition for the two children mentioned is being almost completely paid for by the grandparents. However, it does raise the question of why public schools aren't good enough for these children, but public health care is.

The Democrats parading this unfortunate child for expanding this program appears to me to be a strawman. At the income reported for the family, they qualify for the program and no one is trying to take now qualified children off of it. If the family's income is being under reported it is up to others to discover and correct.

I also must ask where was their auto insurance for medical costs after teh car accident that injured this child? All auto accident policies carry a medical provision for injuries to occupants and unlike health insurance, it is not an option to carry auto insurance.

Some left-winged sites are outraged that the childs family is under scrutiny. In typical leftist fashion, we are not supposed to look into claims made by unfortunates they prostitute for their agendas. Any person put out in front of the public in agenda driven pushes deserves to be scrutinized, regardless of what side they represent.