On the Senate floor Thursday, while arguing that the $1.5 trillion tax cuts bill that his committee has shepherded to the floor is good policy, Sen. Orrin Hatch said the nation can't afford the Children's Health Insurance Program unless other spending cuts are made. The invaluable Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio pressed Hatch on the fact that CHIP funding lapsed 31 days ago, and that states are now having to start informing CHIP clients that their coverage is going away, and asked why it wasn't the top priority of Republicans.
Hatch resorted to his favorite trick: feigned outrage at what he turns into a personal affront. "I invented it," he said of CHIP. "I was the one who wrote it. Kennedy came over and helped to put it through." But then you get the real Hatch, what he really believes
But let me tell you something. We're going to do CHIP, there's no question about it in my mind. It has to be done the right way. But we—the reason CHIP is having trouble is because we don't have money anymore. We just add more and more spending and more and more spending, and you can look at the rest of the bill for the more and more spending.
Get that? We can afford permanent tax cuts for the rich and corporations, but we can't afford to take care of 9 million children. Oh, but it gets much worse.
Jam the phone lines of House and Senate Republicans, but make the first call to Hatch. Call (202) 224-3121, and tell him to stop holding kids hostage and to pass a clean funding bill for CHIP and community health centers.
I happen to think CHIP has done a terrific job for people who really needed the help. I have taken the position around here my whole Senate service. I believe in helping those who cannot help themselves but would if they could. I have a rough time wanting to spend billions and billions and trillions of dollars to help people who won't help themselves, won't lift a finger and expect the federal government to do everything. […]
Unfortunately, the liberal philosophy has created millions of people that way who believe everything they are or ever hope to be depend upon the federal government rather than the opportunities that this great country grants them. I've got to say I think it's pretty hard to argue against these comments, because if you look it over, for decades now, we have been spending more than we have, building more and more federal programs, some of which are lousy, some of which are well intended, and some of which are actually good like the CHIP program. [emphasis added]
And in getting CHIP funded, he continues, "we are going to have to resolve some of these big problems around here it seems to me before we get those problems solved." Which means taking money away from all those undeserving people "who believe everything they are or ever hope to be depend upon the federal government." Because everyone knows that all the people who are going to be making out like bandits got their high tax brackets through the sweat of their brow, like the Trumps.
Then he has the gall to say this: "I'd like to see us all get together and start running this country in a good manner, living within our means, finding ways of increasing our economy so that we can take care of the poor better than we are right now, and doing the things that we all know we should be doing."
All while he is jamming a god-awful behemoth of a social engineering program that has the capacity to bankrupt the nation, with no input from Democrats, in a process that shuts out Democrats. He has the gall to be offended that someone has pointed out to him that 9 million children are waiting to find out if they will have health care next year.
