[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 153 (Wednesday, October 10, 2007)]
[House]
[Page H11397]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                 SCHIP

  (Mr. EMANUEL asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. EMANUEL. Madam Speaker, when the House tried to reauthorize the 
children's health care bill, the President of the United States called 
SCHIP ``a welfare benefit'' for ``middle-class households.''
  Maybe there is some confusion at the other end of Pennsylvania 
Avenue. Our bill provides health care for 10 million children whose 
parents work every day but can't afford to buy health care. They earn a 
paycheck, not a welfare check. They are parents like Dolores Sweeney.
  Dolores lives in my district. She works for an insurance company that 
doesn't provide health care. She has three children, and they would 
like to buy private health care for their children but can't afford it. 
Her children were on SCHIP, and without the SCHIP program, they would 
have gone without health care.
  Our bill does right by the Sweeney children and 10 million other 
children from working families. But the President says it's too 
expensive and calls it welfare for the middle class. At the same time, 
the President is eager to spend $680 billion in Iraq. We have spent 
$400 billion in 4 years in the war in Iraq, and for 40 days for the 
cost of the war, 10 million children in America will get health care 
for a year.
  So the President can call the children's health insurance ``excessive 
spending'' and he can call SCHIP ``welfare,'' but for Dolores Sweeney, 
it is peace of mind.

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