[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 4 (Monday, January 8, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S75-S76]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  CHILDREN'S HEALTH INSURANCE PROGRAM

  Mr. MERKLEY. Mr. President, 100 days is a significant period of 
time--significant, particularly, because it involves the health of our 
children, which has been neglected over the last 3 months plus. How is 
it that this Chamber managed to go more than 3 months and not get in 
place a permanent expansion or a 5-year expansion of healthcare for our 
Nation's children?
  Well, I can tell you why. It is because my colleagues on the majority 
side of the aisle here in this Chamber had a different bill that they 
were immersed in and that was a healthcare bill that would be better 
termed a health destruction bill because it would have wiped out 
healthcare for somewhere between 20 and 30 million Americans, and 
eventually version No. 5 of that bill died here in the Senate.
  Then my colleagues across the aisle said: Well, we have another 
beautiful idea. We are going to do a tax bill that will deliver 
trillions of dollars to the richest Americans. Well, our Constitution 
was crafted around the vision of government of, by, and for the people, 
but my colleagues across the aisle like a different version of 
governance. They like governance by and for the powerful and the 
privileged.
  So here they have this tax bill, and this tax bill has provisions 
like eliminating the dynasty loophole so wealthy families can pass 
their dynasty inheritances from one generation to the next without ever 
paying capital gains. They had a provision that they wanted to change 
the tax brackets for the wealthiest Americans. They wanted to have 
corporations, which have paid a smaller and smaller and smaller share 
of the costs of the infrastructure and the healthcare and the education 
of America, to pay even less. They had a provision where passthrough 
corporations would get a sweetheart rate. If you add up these 
provisions, they total over $3 trillion. Now, not all of it goes to the 
wealthiest 1 percent, but most of it does, and most of it goes to the 
wealthiest 10 percent.
  Let's just take and only count two-thirds of that $2 trillion. Now, 
let's think about that number. That is a number that we really can't 
imagine. How many grains of sand are on this beach? You just can't get 
your hands around that kind of money--$2 trillion to the richest 
Americans. So let's divide it by the number of American men, women, and 
children in our country, and what do you end up with? You end up with 
the fact that that bill that

[[Page S76]]

my colleagues across the aisle were so insistent on passing delivers 
the equivalent of $6,000 for every man, woman, and child in America to 
the very richest Americans.
  This bill was not about delivering benefits to the richest Americans. 
This bill was not about delivering benefits to the privileged. This 
bill was not about making the powerful more powerful. This bill was 
about children, and so it got set aside, one day after another after 
another, and we are at 100 days and counting.
  Now, who are these children? These are the children of families who 
are the working America. They don't qualify for Medicaid--in Oregon 
that is the Oregon Health Plan--because they are doing a little bit 
better than that, but not well enough to afford regular insurance in 
America. These are the children of the working poor.
  Now, not so long ago, we had a Presidential campaign, and President 
Trump campaigned on helping working families. But where was President 
Trump? President Trump was all immersed in the same tax bill for the 
privileged and the powerful, and he didn't say anything about trying to 
make this happen for our children of working families.
  This bill, by the way, began 21 years ago. This program, the 
Children's Health Insurance Program, or CHIP, was forged in 
bipartisanship. This bill was the product of Senator Ted Kennedy and 
Senator Orrin Hatch, working together to say that we shouldn't allow 
children of low-income families to go without healthcare. Why is that? 
Well, because they knew it profoundly affects the quality of life of 
that child. We want to invest in those children. We want them to be 
successful. We want them to have strong futures. We don't want them to 
go without doctor's visits when they are sick. We don't want them to go 
without vaccinations and contract terrible illnesses. We don't want 
them to go without dental care and have their teeth destroyed even 
before they reach adulthood. No, we are going to take care of those 
children.
  This bill was forged in bipartisanship back when both sides of the 
aisle seemed to care about the vision of government of, by, and for the 
people, but that vision has been disappearing. There is probably no 
better symbol of that than this session and the leadership of this body 
being obsessed with benefits for the best off while ignoring this bill 
for our children.
  Now, it hasn't been completely ignored. The Finance Committee has 
acted. There is a bill called the KIDS Act, or the Keep Kids' Insurance 
Dependable and Secure Act. Once again, Senator Hatch was right in the 
middle of this, partnering with Senator Wyden from Oregon. Again, it is 
bipartisanship at the committee level. They passed it out, and they 
passed it out unanimously, but we don't see the KIDS Act getting passed 
here on the floor of the Senate.
  So let's change course. Let's try to remember that this Nation was 
founded on the vision of distributed power among the citizens so that 
it will continue to make decisions by and for the people, not by and 
for the best off in our society. Let's try to reclaim that vision, and 
let's start by passing this bipartisan bill, forged in bipartisanship 
and passed out of the Finance Committee in bipartisanship. Let's get it 
to the floor, and let's pass it now. Let's not let this 100 days become 
105 or 110 or 130. Let's get it passed now.
  Now, in the continuing resolution there was a little short patch that 
said: Well, we are going to make sure the States that are running out 
of money right now for a couple of months will not go under. This is 
not the type of bill that we should have for a few weeks or a couple 
months. Quite frankly, I heard lots of folks on this floor saying that 
they were so excited about this tax rip-off to give money to the 
powerful because the powerful need predictability, they need stability, 
and they need to know what the tax rules are a long time into the 
future. Well, struggling families would like to have some stability, 
not have their children be a bargaining chip in some broader vision of 
securing even more benefits for the powerful at the expense of working 
Americans.
  Let's put aside that vision of using our kids as a bargaining chip 
and pass this bill and get it to the President's desk.
  Thank you, Mr. President.

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