It’s been 74 days since the Republican-controlled Congress allowed funding authorization for the Children’s Health Insurance Program to expire, jeopardizing the health care of some 9 million children. The newest member of Congress, Sen.-elect Doug Jones of Alabama, took some time out of his victory speech Tuesday night to highlight that.
You don’t get a lot more common ground than a Democrat winning a statewide race in Alabama. For the first time, Republicans are making CHIP a partisan football. A program that’s always had universal, bipartisan support is now in jeopardy because Republicans have decided that kids—some of them very ill—should be taken hostage.
The people of Alabama just gave the Republican Congress a lesson in decency by rejecting Roy Moore and electing Jones. If they don’t learn from that, they’re going to have a very rough 2018.
Jam the phone lines of House and Senate Republicans. Call (202) 224-3121, and tell them to stop holding kids hostage and to pass a clean funding bill for CHIP and community health centers.