Showing posts with label Joe Knollenberg SCHIP. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Joe Knollenberg SCHIP. Show all posts
Thursday, November 08, 2007
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
More Knollenberg Lies on his SCHIP vote
Mike Brownfield, Joe Knollenberg's campaign manager made this video recently. The lies contained therein are unacceptable, so I'd like to set the record straight.
Lie 1: The bill opens the door for illegal immigrants to receive benefits.
Reality: The latest version of the SCHIP bill specifically excludes illegal aliens from receiving benefits under the provisions of the bill.
Lie 2: The bill is paid for by 22 million new smokers.
The bill is paid for by raising the tobacco tax by 61 cents a pack. The higher the cost of cigarettes, the less likely kids will take up smoking. According to the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, a 61-cent increase in the tobacco tax means that 1,873,000 fewer children will take up smoking. Furthermore, the vast majority of Members of the House and Senate – both Democratic and Republican – are on record in favor of raising tobacco taxes. In August, all but 4 House Republicans voted for the GOP motion to recommit that included an increase of 45 cents a pack in the tobacco tax.
Lie 3: The bill would expand coverage to 700,000 adults.
Reality: The SCHIP program focuses virtually all of its resources on children in the poorest of working families – fewer than 1 in 10 children covered under SCHIP lives in a family of four earning more than $41,000 a year. This is how the program will remain under the bill.
Lie 1: The bill opens the door for illegal immigrants to receive benefits.
Reality: The latest version of the SCHIP bill specifically excludes illegal aliens from receiving benefits under the provisions of the bill.
Lie 2: The bill is paid for by 22 million new smokers.
The bill is paid for by raising the tobacco tax by 61 cents a pack. The higher the cost of cigarettes, the less likely kids will take up smoking. According to the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, a 61-cent increase in the tobacco tax means that 1,873,000 fewer children will take up smoking. Furthermore, the vast majority of Members of the House and Senate – both Democratic and Republican – are on record in favor of raising tobacco taxes. In August, all but 4 House Republicans voted for the GOP motion to recommit that included an increase of 45 cents a pack in the tobacco tax.
Lie 3: The bill would expand coverage to 700,000 adults.
Reality: The SCHIP program focuses virtually all of its resources on children in the poorest of working families – fewer than 1 in 10 children covered under SCHIP lives in a family of four earning more than $41,000 a year. This is how the program will remain under the bill.
This bipartisan bill places the priority on children’s coverage – and therefore PHASES OUT the coverage of parents and childless adults entirely over a two-year period (there are currently about 600,000 of these adults covered under SCHIP). Only optional coverage for pregnant women remains under the bill.
SCHIP has broad bi-partisan support and Joe Knollenberg is out of step with many of his Republican colleagues.
Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa)
“[This bill] breaks the legislative impasse and should have strong support from both Democrats and Republicans. The bill will enable the Children’s Health Insurance Program to help cover millions more low-income children.” [Joint press release, 9/21/07]
Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Iowa)
“I have been fighting for legislation that will not only continue the CHIP program, but also cover more low-income kids who are eligible for CHIP. Today, we are unveiling our bipartisan compromise that accomplishes those two very important goals. Our proposal is an honest compromise which improves a program that works for America’s low-income children.” [Joint press release, 9/21/07]
Rep. Vernon Ehlers (R-Mich.)
“I grew up with acute asthma, and I know personally how important it is for kids to have access to affordable health care. This bill will continue to provide health care coverage to millions of children who otherwise would be uninsured.” [Statement, 9/26/07]
Monday, October 15, 2007
USA Today - Joe feels heat over SCHIP Veto
House Republicans feel heat in wake of SCHIP veto
CLICK HERE to read the full story
By Richard Wolf, USA TODAY
ROCHESTER HILLS, Mich. - The scarecrows adorning Main Street in this affluent Detroit suburb are symbolic of the frightening times ahead for Rep. Joe Knollenberg and other Republicans as they prepare to block a broad expansion of children's health insurance this week.
On television and radio, in phone calls and e-mails, proponents of the five-year, $35 billion increase are pressuring about 20 Republicans to switch sides and help override President Bush's veto. The full-court press includes preachers, rock stars such as Paul Simon and sick kids in an effort to sway the result - or the next election.
Few Republicans have more to fear than Knollenberg, a former insurance agent whose nearly 15-year grip on Michigan's 9th Congressional District has never been as weak. His customary double-digit victories shrunk to 5 percentage points in 2006. Now, he's saddled with an increasingly unpopular war and president. Being perceived as voting against kids doesn't help.
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That includes Knollenberg, at 73 a grandfatherly figure who seems ill-suited for in-your-face politics. He gets plenty of that here from Bruce Fealk, a local activist with the liberal group MoveOn.org.
When Knollenberg ventured inside Lytle Pharmacy on Saturday to shake hands, Fealk was waiting. "When are you going to end the war, Joe?" said Fealk, wearing a white T-shirt that read, "ENOUGH."
Former state senator and lottery commissioner Gary Peters, a Democrat, has $200,000 in the bank, about 25% of Knollenberg's amount. Nancy Skinner, Knollenberg's Democratic challenger in 2006, is likely to announce her candidacy Tuesday. Peters insists the district "has been continually trending more Democratic."
Today, Peters is launching a "Little Red Wagon Campaign" supporting the children's health expansion. It urges people to download a sketch from his website, color it and send it to Knollenberg.
Personal stakes
Knollenberg will have none of that. Although the bill coming back to the House on Thursday won support from 45 Republicans last month, he calls it "the Pelosi health care bill" after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. It's "a pile of loose parts that depends on 22 million new smokers in America to pay for taxpayer-funded health benefits for illegal immigrants," he says.
Those arguments are enough to convince some people. "Thanks for your opposition," Greg Bruder called out along Main Street here Saturday. "It was a miserable bill." Bruder sums up the debate as "socialism vs. independence."
Others side with Democrats. At the St. Paul's United Methodist Church, 70-year-old Donna Stenton says $35 billion over five years pales compared with the costs of the Iraq war. "I have a feeling that a lot of Republicans better watch out," she says.
CLICK HERE to read the full story
By Richard Wolf, USA TODAY
ROCHESTER HILLS, Mich. - The scarecrows adorning Main Street in this affluent Detroit suburb are symbolic of the frightening times ahead for Rep. Joe Knollenberg and other Republicans as they prepare to block a broad expansion of children's health insurance this week.
On television and radio, in phone calls and e-mails, proponents of the five-year, $35 billion increase are pressuring about 20 Republicans to switch sides and help override President Bush's veto. The full-court press includes preachers, rock stars such as Paul Simon and sick kids in an effort to sway the result - or the next election.
Few Republicans have more to fear than Knollenberg, a former insurance agent whose nearly 15-year grip on Michigan's 9th Congressional District has never been as weak. His customary double-digit victories shrunk to 5 percentage points in 2006. Now, he's saddled with an increasingly unpopular war and president. Being perceived as voting against kids doesn't help.
----------
That includes Knollenberg, at 73 a grandfatherly figure who seems ill-suited for in-your-face politics. He gets plenty of that here from Bruce Fealk, a local activist with the liberal group MoveOn.org.
When Knollenberg ventured inside Lytle Pharmacy on Saturday to shake hands, Fealk was waiting. "When are you going to end the war, Joe?" said Fealk, wearing a white T-shirt that read, "ENOUGH."
Former state senator and lottery commissioner Gary Peters, a Democrat, has $200,000 in the bank, about 25% of Knollenberg's amount. Nancy Skinner, Knollenberg's Democratic challenger in 2006, is likely to announce her candidacy Tuesday. Peters insists the district "has been continually trending more Democratic."
Today, Peters is launching a "Little Red Wagon Campaign" supporting the children's health expansion. It urges people to download a sketch from his website, color it and send it to Knollenberg.
Personal stakes
Knollenberg will have none of that. Although the bill coming back to the House on Thursday won support from 45 Republicans last month, he calls it "the Pelosi health care bill" after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. It's "a pile of loose parts that depends on 22 million new smokers in America to pay for taxpayer-funded health benefits for illegal immigrants," he says.
Those arguments are enough to convince some people. "Thanks for your opposition," Greg Bruder called out along Main Street here Saturday. "It was a miserable bill." Bruder sums up the debate as "socialism vs. independence."
Others side with Democrats. At the St. Paul's United Methodist Church, 70-year-old Donna Stenton says $35 billion over five years pales compared with the costs of the Iraq war. "I have a feeling that a lot of Republicans better watch out," she says.
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