[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 19]
[Senate]
[Pages 26102-26104]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




             THE BUDGET PROCESS AND CHILDREN'S HEALTH CARE

  Ms. STABENOW. Mr. President, a colleague and friend of mine on the 
other side of the aisle spoke a few minutes ago about the budget 
process. I come today to specifically talk about children's health 
care, but I think it is important to respond to what was said as it 
relates to the budget process and adopting a budget by October 1.
  I was thinking as he was speaking, I have been here now--this is my 
seventh year, my seventh budget process. We have never met the October 
1 deadline--never. In fact, I am not sure I remember having done it in 
the House when I was there for 4 years, either. We all know it is a 
nice political argument to make on the floor of the Senate, but it has 
no credibility because the reality is the October 1 deadline is 
something that is difficult to meet and we usually work through the 
fall on the budget. Everybody knows that.
  What I think is significant, though, is the fact that if we are going 
to hold to that test as the test of responsible leadership, 6 of the 
last 7 years the Republican majority was in charge and 6

[[Page 26103]]

times they did not meet an October 1 deadline. In fact, last year, they 
never got a budget passed at all--at all. We came in as the new 
majority and had to pick up the pieces and figure out how to keep the 
Government going for the last half of the year. So I find it 
disingenuous--and I would say this to my friend if he were here--to 
come to the floor and make great political speeches and great theater. 
The reality is we all on both sides of the aisle know that the 
appropriators are working together now, coming to the floor on a 
bipartisan basis, to do what we do every single year--every single year 
in October and November and, unfortunately, at times into December.
  But what I am very proud of is the fact that our leader, Senator 
Reid, and our leadership in our caucus take very seriously our 
responsibilities on the budget; not only putting a budget in place, but 
a budget with the right values, the right priorities. We are changing 
the priorities on behalf of the people of this country. We are changing 
the priorities as they relate to funding the troops and pay raises and 
making sure our troops have what they need. We are changing the 
priorities. We will be dealing with a bill later this week as it 
relates to the Commerce, Justice, and State appropriations where we are 
going to stop the cuts the President has made in law enforcement, in 
the COPS program, in the FBI, and in juvenile justice and drug 
enforcement. We will work to reinstate that and refocus us on those 
things that keep our communities safe, keep America safe.
  I am very proud of that. I am very proud of the priorities we have 
been putting in place as relates to this budget. On top of that, we are 
not digging a bigger hole as it relates to the deficit of this country, 
because we have returned to a policy that was in place under the former 
administration, under President Clinton, that simply says if you are 
going to spend dollars, you have to pay for it. You either have to cut 
some place in order to increase another or you have to raise revenue. 
It is a basic principle. It ought to be a no-brainer. But that has been 
suspended in the last 6 years, creating the largest deficits in the 
history of the country.
  I am happy to come to the floor and talk about budgets and process, 
and I am very proud of the direction we are going in.
  I am also very proud of what we have done as it relates to another 
absolutely critical priority, and that is children's health care. We 
have a health care system for low-income individuals called Medicaid. 
If you work, 2 parents or a mom may be working 2 jobs, maybe 3 minimum-
wage jobs to try to make sure she pays the bills and has a roof over 
her children's heads and food on the table, chances are she is a low-
income working parent, or a couple working together, a dad working for 
his children. Chances are health care is going to be too expensive--
just too expensive to buy in the individual market if you don't have it 
through the place where you work.
  Ten years ago this Congress came together in a bipartisan way under a 
different President to say: We want to help families who are working 
hard every single day, who care about their children and who are doing 
everything they can to do the right thing--the values we should be 
supporting in this country, of hard work, family, and caring about our 
kids.
  We want to help them by putting in place a children's insurance 
program so that at least the children of low-income working families 
are able to get the health care they need. It has been a huge success. 
We have overwhelming support from Governors, Republicans and Democrats, 
and State legislatures. In fact, this is the ultimate in strange 
bedfellows. We have the U.S. Chamber and the business community, the 
labor community, health care providers, children's advocates, and 
consumer advocates; we have the broadest possible group of Americans 
with the broadest possible interests that have come together to work 
with us to be able to design an extension of children's health care 
and, in fact, to be able to include additional children who qualify 
under that program for working families. We passed that on a huge 
bipartisan vote in this Senate--enough to override a Presidential veto. 
The House of Representatives passed it with a very large bipartisan 
vote.
  Today, the President, we assume, will be getting this bill. There is 
only one thing standing between 10 million children getting health 
insurance in this country, the parents of 10 million children being 
able to sleep a little easier tonight--there is only one thing standing 
between that happening and those families and that is the signature of 
the President of the United States.
  So I am here today, as colleagues on both sides of the aisle have 
done, to thank our leadership--Senator Reid and the bipartisan 
leadership of Senator Max Baucus, Senator Grassley, Senator Orrin 
Hatch, and Senator Rockefeller. They have done a magnificent job of 
doing what we are supposed to do: Bring people's diverse interests 
together, develop a true compromise, and get things done.
  I urge this President to look deep inside his heart, take a few 
moments to talk to some of these families before he puts his veto on 
this bill. This is one of the most significant things we will do in 
this Congress. It is one of the most significant moments for this 
President. He asked us, again, to fund a war that is not paid for. For 
41 days of funding of that war, we could pay for 10 million children 
getting health insurance over the next 5 years. This is about values 
and priorities. It always has been.
  In my home State, I can tell you we have 90,000 children and 
parents--families who are waiting and hoping and praying that this 
President will join with all of us in doing the right thing. Too many 
families are struggling. Health care is skyrocketing. These same 
families are being squeezed on all sides. Gas prices going up, health 
care costs are going up, they have challenges in keeping their 
mortgages, and what will happen to their jobs? Will they be shipped 
overseas? Will they get a pay cut? What is happening in terms of 
preparing to send their children to college? Middle-class families are 
being squeezed on all sides.
  For a group of parents who are working very hard but don't have 
health insurance through their job, this Congress has done the right 
thing by passing a children's health care bill that will say at least 
your children will be able to get the health insurance they need and 
deserve.
  When this President was at the Republican convention in 2004 
accepting his nomination for reelection for his second term, President 
Bush said:

       In the new term, we will lead an aggressive effort to 
     enroll millions of poor children who are eligible but not 
     signed up for Government health insurance programs. We will 
     not allow a lack of attention, or information, to stand 
     between these children and the health care they need.

  Since that time, President Bush sent to us a budget that, in fact, as 
he funded it, would eliminate well over a million children who 
currently receive health care under the Children's Health Care Program. 
We have rejected that, and we have turned to see how the program was 
working and found there were millions more children eligible for this 
very same program as the economy gets tougher and tougher for families, 
but the funding wasn't there to make sure those children receive 
children's health care as well. So we worked together, and we are now 
including an additional 4 million children whose families are working 
but have not been able to get health insurance. That, all together, 
equals 10 million children under the legislation we passed.
  There is nothing more important we could do than to guarantee that 
children get a healthy start in life--whether it is the general 
practitioner they need to see, the dentist or whether they need mental 
health help. We have said the children of this country are a priority 
for our majority, for the Senate, for the House of Representatives.
  I simply ask today at this critical moment: President Bush, please 
join us and sign this bill.
  I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.

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  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, are we in morning business?
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Yes, we are.
  Mr. DURBIN. It is my understanding the majority has its period.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. That is correct.
  Mr. DURBIN. How much time remains?
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. There is 17 minutes remaining.

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