[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 140 (Thursday, September 20, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Pages S11780-S11781]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         CHILDREN'S HEALTH CARE

  Ms. STABENOW. Mr. President, I know we are in the middle of working 
on a very important bill, but I do wish to take a moment to respond to 
a press conference the President just held where he spoke about his 
intent to veto the bipartisan children's health care bill we will be 
sending to him.
  It is very important we indicate that just because the President has 
a bully pulpit does not mean he is accurate or right. It does not 
matter how much spin they want to put on this situation, the reality is 
the President of the United States gave us a budget earlier this year--
and the Budget Committee looked at this very carefully--this President 
proposed a budget that would cut, according to CBO, 1.6 million 
children from health care, current children. So when I hear the 
President at a press conference talking about the fact that he wants to 
make sure children are covered with health insurance, actions speak 
louder than words.
  The President asked us to put forward a budget that would cut 1.6 
million children of working families who currently have health 
insurance from their health care. We rejected that request. We looked 
at the fact that there are from 6 to 7 million children who currently 
qualify to receive children's health insurance. Again, these are 
working families, folks who do not qualify for low-income help. They 
are moms and dads working one, two, maybe three minimum wage jobs, who 
are desperately concerned that at least their children have the health 
care they need.
  I am very proud the Senate came together and in a true bipartisan 
effort developed a health care program, an expansion that will not only 
make sure every child who currently has health insurance will keep that 
health care, but that 4 million more children will be able to have 
health care in this country. Their moms and dads will not have to go to 
bed at night praying: Please don't let the kids get sick.
  Sixty-eight Members of this Senate, not counting the fact that 
Senator Johnson who is now back with us would make that 69 Members, 
voted together in true bipartisanship to say that one of the basic 
values of this country is to make sure the children of working families 
have the opportunity to get the health care they need. It is pretty 
basic. This is a matter of values and priorities.
  Later today, in a few moments, I am going to be joining with Families 
USA to announce their new study that says that 90 million Americans 
sometime in the last 2 years did not have health insurance. One out of 
three Americans sometime in the last 2 years did not have health 
insurance. This is a national tragedy. And for us not to at least focus 
on children, at least say our value as Americans is to make sure that 
children of low-income working families get the basic health care they 
need, to me is something I find incredibly important and appalling, 
quite frankly, that the President of the United States says on the one 
hand he will veto a bipartisan bill to expand health care coverage to 
children of working families and then have--I hate to say what I was 
going to say--the amazing position to come to us shortly and to ask 
somewhere up to another $200 billion for the war in Iraq that the 
majority of Americans want to see changed.
  Mr. DURBIN. Will the Senator yield for a question?
  Ms. STABENOW. I would be happy to.
  Mr. DURBIN. First, Mr. President, I wish to thank the Senator from 
Michigan for making this statement on the floor of the Senate. I 
listened to the news reports this morning and heard that some from the 
White House said they did not believe we should be helping to pay for 
health insurance for families who are well off, such as families making 
$60,000 a year. That was the reference that was made.
  The Senator from Michigan, I am sure, is aware that health insurance 
premiums--assuming the whole family is healthy--could, in some 
circumstances, cost a family thousands of dollars each year. If their 
gross income is $60,000, and they are trying to get by with $3,000 or 
$4,000 a month, an $800 health insurance bill for a healthy family, let 
alone $1,200 or more for a family with a sick child, it is hard for me 
to understand how the White House could say a family making $60,000 a 
year is so well off they would not need help in providing health 
insurance to their children.
  I suggest to the Senator from Michigan that the President's position 
here seems to me to be inconsistent, in that he is willing to provide 
tax cuts for the wealthiest people in America and then is saying folks 
who make $60,000 a year are well off and don't need a helping hand when 
it comes to their children's health insurance. So in addition to the 
cost of the war in Iraq, I ask the Senator from Michigan, isn't it a 
little difficult to understand the President's position of giving tax 
breaks to the wealthy and not giving working families making $60,000 a 
year a helping hand with their health insurance for kids?
  Ms. STABENOW. Well, my distinguished colleague is absolutely correct, 
and I thank him for his comments.
  This is truly a question of values and priorities. That is what we 
are about in this business, in this Chamber, when we make decisions. 
The President has said the wealthiest among us are much more important 
than moms and dads, most of whom, by the way, are making much less than 
what we are talking about or the numbers the White House has put out. 
Those families ought to be able to, at a minimum, know that their 
children have health insurance when they get sick.
  But what adds insult to injury, I believe, for the American people, 
is to know that on top of that--on top of tax priorities for the 
wealthy versus families and their health care--is the fact that on the 
one hand we have put together something that is responsible, 
bipartisan, and fully paid for within the budget, and yet the President 
is going to be sending us a request for anywhere from $150 billion to 
$200 billion more for a war in Iraq that the American people want to 
change, a policy that is not supported by the majority of Americans. To 
add insult to injury, none of it is paid for. It will go directly on to 
the national debt.
  So this is a question of values and priorities. It doesn't matter, 
again as I said when I began, how much the President wants to spin it. 
We all know he has a very big megaphone, a very big bully pulpit. But 
that doesn't mean he is right. The spin machine cannot outweigh what is 
going on here in terms of American families. We have something that we 
have done together on a bipartisan basis. We should all be very proud 
of it. A basic for every single one of our families is the ability to 
know they can care for their children and they will have the health 
care they need.
  Far too many families today don't get help because they do not have a 
low enough income. They are working and putting it together. Maybe it 
is a single mom, maybe it is a single dad, maybe it is mom and dad. 
They are putting together the income in a way where they can pay all 
the increased costs that everybody is having to deal with--the gas 
prices that are going up and the possibility of losing jobs. Certainly 
in my State wages are going down, and health care costs going up--all 
of the things that are squeezing our working families. But we are 
saying, you know what, one of the things we can do together, and we 
have already done it here and we are going to be sending it to the 
President, is to allow for 4 million more children to get the health 
care they need for those moms and dads who are working but not making 
enough to be able to pay for health insurance.
  We, as a country, ought to be able to say we at least want the 
children to receive the health insurance they need. Health care, in my 
opinion, should be a

[[Page S11781]]

right for the greatest country in the world, not a privilege. Too many 
things have been given to the privileged in this country while working 
families are trying hard every day to make ends meet.
  So I wish to thank all our colleagues who have worked so hard on this 
legislation. It is something we can all be very proud of, and I ask the 
President to take another look. This body together, 68 Members who 
voted, were not playing politics. We were coming together in a 
bipartisan way to be able to give more children, American children, the 
ability to get their health care needs taken care of. It is time we had 
the President join with us in the right set of priorities for American 
families.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The assistant majority leader is recognized.
  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak as in 
morning business.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Michigan for 
coming to the Senate floor. Occasionally, there are debates in this 
Chamber that really matter. The debate on the war in Iraq certainly 
leads that list. We have a deadly war underway. A hundred American 
soldiers are killed, on average, every single month. Almost 4,000 have 
died, with 30,000 having been injured. At least 10,000 have been 
seriously injured, with amputations and burns and traumatic brain 
injury. That should be the focal point of what we do on the floor of 
the Senate, and it is.
  Yesterday, sadly, an important amendment by Senator Webb of Virginia, 
an important amendment for soldiers and their families, was defeated, 
defeated on a vote of 56 to 44. The average person might say: It sounds 
like you won. Not by Senate math. By Senate math it takes 60 votes on 
controversial issues, and this required 60, so that wasn't enough. We 
were defeated in an effort to say something very straightforward: If 
you are going to ask our soldiers to be deployed in combat, risking 
their lives for 12 months, you should at least give them 12 months 
afterward to rest, be reunited with their family, retrained and 
reequipped, before they go back into combat. So 12 months on duty, 12 
months off duty. That was defeated.
  If you meet with these soldiers and their families, if you know the 
stress they are under, if you read the numbers about the divorce rate 
among our soldiers, the suicide rate, the post-traumatic stress 
disorder which they are battling as they return from the stress of 
battles, it is hard to imagine the Senate would not give that kind of 
consideration to our soldiers and their families. That is a critically 
important debate.
  Now, we will soon move to another very important debate. It is about 
health insurance. Everybody in America knows there is something that 
needs to be done on health insurance. There are 47 million of our 
neighbors in America, people who live with us in our communities and go 
to church with us, who have no health insurance. In my home State of 
Illinois, I went back in August in deep southern Illinois, near 
Harrisburg, in Saline County, and a woman came to me and said: I am 63 
years old. I am a realtor. I have never had health insurance 1 day in 
my life. It is hard to imagine, but that is the reality many working 
Americans face every single day. They are one diagnosis, one illness 
away from bankruptcy. Those are the people with no health insurance.
  Now, let us speak about those who have health insurance but it isn't 
good enough; it costs more each year and covers less. We know the 
story. Businesses tell you, labor unions tell you, families tell you: I 
don't have the kind of coverage I want, and it costs a fortune. That is 
the reality.
  We also know that in our great Nation there are 15 million children--
of the 47 million I mentioned earlier, 15 million are children--with no 
health insurance. These are kids from families not poor enough to 
qualify for Medicaid and not fortunate enough to have a parent with a 
job that has health insurance. There are 15 million kids for whom the 
only opportunity for health care is a trip to an emergency room.
  We wanted to change that 5 years ago, and we passed this CHIP 
program, Children's Health Insurance Program, and said let us do 
something about it. So we covered 6 million of the 15 million kids, but 
now the program is going to expire in a few days. Our hope with this 
new Congress was we could expand health insurance to cover more 
children, at least 3 million more. We want to make sure all 15 million 
are covered, but we are not going to quite reach that goal. We want to 
at least get closer, with 9 million covered.
  We had a bipartisan agreement to do that. The Senate came together, 
cooperated, compromised, and reached an agreement to expand health 
insurance protection to another 3 million kids. This morning, the 
President of the United States had a press availability and announced 
he would oppose this bill expanding health insurance for children. At 
the time, the spokesman for his administration said: We don't want to 
give health insurance to families who are well off. They defined a 
family that is well off as one that makes $60,000 a year.
  Now, I have to tell you, $60,000 is more than the average wage in my 
hometown of Springfield, IL, but not by much. And $60,000 a year, after 
you pay your taxes, doesn't leave a lot of money for your mortgage 
payment, for your utility bills, for your property taxes, and for the 
kids' school expenses. If you happen to not have health insurance where 
you work, $60,000 doesn't leave much of a cushion to turn around and 
buy health insurance. That insurance is going to cost you $60 or $80, 
maybe $1,000 or more a month.
  We think those families, with kids who don't have health insurance, 
making $60,000, deserve a helping hand so they can at least have the 
security of health insurance and know their kids are covered. But it is 
going to be a battle. We are going to pass this bill and send it to the 
President. He is going to veto this bill--at least he promises to. I 
hope he reconsiders. But if not, we will then get a chance to override 
his veto.
  This is the kind of debate which matters. For millions of Americans 
and their families, this debate gets down to one of the real issues 
that keep parents awake at night, worrying about their kids.
  Some of us in our lives have been through this experience. I was a 
law student when my wife and I had a little baby and were without 
health insurance. We had some medical issues with our baby. I didn't 
have health insurance to turn to. That happened many years ago. My 
daughter is now 40 years old. But let me tell you, I will never forget 
it. There was a sinking feeling that my girl was not going to get the 
best doctor and the best care because, as a father, I didn't have 
health insurance to cover her. It was only for a short period in my 
life, but I will never forget it. I can't imagine people living with 
that feeling every day, every week, every month, and every year. 
Shouldn't we, as a great and giving nation, care about our own first?
  This President will not even blink when he sends us a bill in a week 
or so asking for $198 billion more for the war in Iraq--$198 billion. 
Yet he is unwilling to spend $6 billion for health insurance for 
children. That is about what it is each year over a 5-year period of 
time. He will spend $198 billion for the war in Iraq but not $6 billion 
to make America stronger, to make America's families stronger.
  This is a debate worth waging. This is an issue worth fighting for. 
This Senate will return to that issue in a week or two, and I hope the 
American people, on a bipartisan basis, as this bill is bipartisan, 
will join us in urging the Senate to pass the bill and to override the 
President's veto.
  I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. LEVIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the order for the 
quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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