January 14, 2009 – U.S. Congressman Trent Franks (AZ-02) gave the following statement today after voting against H.R. 2, the Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2009, or the Democrats’ latest attempt at a massive expansion of government-funded health care, which neglects to ensure that priority is placed on the most needy and deserving children.  

“Instead of allowing open and thorough debate to produce the best legislation possible, and despite the fact that the current SCHIP program does not expire until March 31, 2009, Democrats have once again bypassed the bipartisan legislative process and have instead forced another vote on a fundamentally flawed SCHIP bill.  Not only does the bill grossly expand the role of the federal government in providing health care – a role it was never intended to fill – but the bill once again fails to put the truly needy children first.  It would extend SCHIP coverage to illegal immigrants, expand coverage to adults, and expand coverage to children from families whose income is almost 400% above the poverty level, without requiring that children beneath poverty level receive care first. 

 “If Democrats truly care for the poorest and most needy American children, and I believe they do, then they should work with Republicans to create a bill that would actually serve that purpose.” 

The Bill is funded by an unstable revenue source which is constantly declining as fewer and fewer individuals smoke.  According to study by the Heritage Foundation, “To produce the revenues that Congress needs to fund SCHIP expansion through such a tax would require 22.4 million new smokers by 2017.”