Floor Speech
Mr. Pallone: Thank you, Madam Speaker and thank you, Chairman Dingell. I'm really pained when I listen to the last speaker and some of the comments that have been made on the other side, calling this sincere effort by the Democrats, on a bipartisan basis with the Senate, to try to come up with something that we can get you on the other side of the aisle to support. I've heard words like bologna and bogus and almost, I think actual, laughter; and it's a sad day when we laugh at this issue, which is an issue of whether we're going to cover kids so that they don't have to go to an emergency room and can actually go to a doctor and get proper healthcare.
The Democrats, and this is again bipartisan with some Republicans and the Senate Republicans, have gone out of their way to try to address the concerns that some of the Republicans have expressed. But the bottom line is that we can't change the fact that we want to cover additional kids - 10 million in total. And when we know that the American people support this effort, what they support is covering more kids. Those that are already eligible and not enrolled up to the tune of 10 million kids. Now, that's going to take $35 billion over five years. You can't get away from it.
The President is saying, well, I can't support any new tobacco tax to pay for it; I'm going to pay for it out of the existing budget. Well, that's simply not possible. If you look at the budget, he's actually cutting Medicaid. And one of the things that this bill does is to stop those cuts in Medicaid so we can cover the kids that we have.
Now, we have tried very hard to address each of the three issues that the Republicans have raised. And the first one that I'd like to talk about today is the issue of illegal aliens. There was never anything in this provision that allowed illegal aliens to be covered. We have made it absolutely clear in this new bill that that is the case, and that they will not be covered. Anyone who suggests otherwise is just not telling the truth and not being honest about this. And the second thing, the second thing that we did, we tried to address the issue of adults. Single adults who were phased out after two years, now under this bill will be phased out after one year. And even the parents, yes, they're also phased out after two or three years. So, we're addressing that issue. And then the third issue that was raised was the issue with regard to the income eligibility. And, here again, what we're saying is that if you go over 300%, other than those that are already grandfathered into the program, you're no longer going to be able to cover those kids at the $82,000 or the other levels that they suggested.
Now, we've made an honest effort here to accomplish this. And all we're asking is that a few more of you come over to our side and join the Republicans in the Senate to vote for this legislation. This is an honest way to try to achieve a compromise that will allow to us cover these 10 million children. Now, take this seriously. One of my colleagues said, well, this is Never-Never Land. This isn't Never-Never Land. We've had discussions with the Republicans. We've had talked to you. Give us those votes so we can cover the kids.
|
