Ladies And Gentlemen, YOUR Republican Party!

In a discussion recently in the Senate about funding the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), these words were heard coming out of the mouth of man who chairs the Senate Finance Committee, the Senate Judiciary Committee, and the Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee, Senator Orrin Hatch Republican of Utah:

The reason CHIP is having trouble is because we don't have any 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.

I happen to think that CHIP has done a terrific job for people who have really needed the help. I have taken the position around here for my whole Senate service that 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 will not help themselves--who will not lift a finger--and expect the Federal Government to do everything.

And then in answering a question about letting CHIP shut down due to lack of funding, Hatch added:

I don't intend to let that happen. I think that we will get CHIP taken care of and, hopefully, a number of other things, too, but we are going to have to resolve some of these big problems around here, it seems to me, before we do get those problems solved.

Meaning after the $1.5 trillion tax reform bill goes through.

According to the Washington Post:

Nearly 9 million youngsters and 370,000 pregnant women nationwide receive care because of [CHIP].

And it needs $15 billion in funding or it'll shut down. By the way a billion is .1% of a trillion. It's one one thousandth of a trillion.

But Orrin Hatch wants to "resolve some of these big problems" before taking care of the CHIP program.

This is the face of the Republican Party - shuttle more and more money to people who already have lots of it, claim the government is out of funds and then (using that as an excuse) shave away funding from people who really need it (rationalizing it with the notion that some probably don't because they "will not help themselves and expect the Federal Government to do everything."

Meanwhile 9 million kids will lose their health insurance, thanks to the "pro-family" party.

Ask your Republican representatives (House or Senate, Federal or Statewide) if they agree with Hatch.