Should the Frost Family be Eligible For State Children’s Health Insurance?
Tigerhawk: “the anecdotal healthcare experiences of a particular child and his family were cited by Democrats as evidence in favor of a specific social program (the details of which hardly matter). Righties responded that his case is quasi-fraudulent political showmanship and responded with anecdotes of their own, namely that the Frost family was more affluent than portrayed by the Democrats. Lefties, including thoughtful and respectable lefties, regard this as yet another example of right-wing “smear” tactics. … Frankly, I think virtually everybody involved has behaved, well, disingenuously and hypocritically.”
The Moderate Voice: “In point of fact, the Frosts are all too typical of middle-class families (one or two of whom might include Republican moms and dads) who are getting squeezed big time these days because of long-term economic trends and the “compassionate conservatism” of the Bush administration.”
Right Wing Nuthouse: “The struggle here is not over little Graeme Frost who no one has criticized or smeared. The ideological battle over “need” and “want” is what is at issue. Of course the middle class wants SCHIP. Why not? It’s free, isn’t it?”
Taylor Marsh: “National health care and the expanding of the rolls of children on S-CHIP is the equivalent of the second coming of F.D.R.’s Social Security. Democratic policies and our commitment to families is truly the moral and ethical equivalent of what cemented a Democratic power block in F.D.R.’s day. With Rush and Michelle Malkin’s version of the Frost’s story completely unraveling on them they’ve got no choice but to ratchet up the rhetoric no matter how unhinged they sound.”
Flopping Aces: “the fact remains, this family is currently eligible for the SCHIP program at 3x the poverty level. In plain English this means they are NOT in poverty. And this Congress wants to expand it even more to include families who make up to 80 grand a year. When will it stop?”
Comments From Left Field: “True, there are some that are so entrenched in their ideology that they believe unequivocally in the ant and the grasshopper in strict black and white terms, but I think most Americans believe children should, without question, get medical care when they need it. The debate surrounds how to get it to them in a way that is fair. Even universal healthcare is something that need not be an exercise in bloodletting and partisan invective if cooler heads from the differing parts of the debate got together and worked it out.”
Captain’s Quarters: “Let’s move the debate back to policy … Most Republicans supported the modest expansion of S-CHIP that the White House originally proposed. No Republican officeholders have, to my knowledge, proposed eliminating S-CHIP or scaling it back in any way. The GOP has argued that the expansion of the program to 400% of the poverty line would damage private health coverage and create a subsidy for families that can afford to make the choice for health coverage already.
The Frosts, the family at the center of the storm, came to personify the issue because Democrats had them use themselves as an argument for the expansion of the program. This turns out to be rather dishonest, because the Frosts qualified for S-CHIP without the expansion, as Herszenhorn reports. Their income levels fell below the existing 200% qualifying range for S-CHIP and they have used the program — as they would have been able to continue to do so with the White House proposal. “
Socialism is socialism, and communism is socialism with a gun. To take money from someone and give it to a family making 80K a year in order to buy votes is “Chavezian”. SCHIP is disastrous pandering, and poorly executed disastrous pandering, at that.
The goodies of welfare state must be limited to the truly needed during an emergency. The state does not create wealth, but only distributes it. God help us when people delude themselves that something is free. They immediately take advantage and become wasteful. The country is doomed once solidly middle class folks like the Frost family believes it is also entitled to welfare benefits.
Allow me to be blunt: FDR’s New Deal economic policies were wildly popular. The majority of American voters strongly supported them. Few understood their long-term destructiveness. Democrats and their selfish country club Republican allies lie to the voters similar to parents who tell their children that there is a Santa Claus and an Easter Bunny. This is why a Republican must be brave. They have to behave like adults and tell people what they prefer not to hear. Such is life. It’s what has got to be done.
The issue at stake here is whether or not there should means testing for subsidies. The state of Maryland effectively subsidized the Frosts commercial real estate investment. If they’re meant to be representative recipients of the program, then it’s a program that subsidizes middle class risk. And maybe that’s not a program that taxpayers really want to fund.
Using the 12 year old child as a distraction is inexcusable.
The government caused the problem with health care in America by over socializing medicine to the extent it is not completive, and we want to exacerbate the problem? Kids have health care. The needy already have health care. The U.S. is not a socialist state ( see http://tinyurl.com/2znnvl ). No one is entitled to be given a house, car, food or health care, etc. If we want these things, we have to earn them. The government does not earn money. Perhaps some of us should take a civics class and learn about America. We all have to labor for what we want. For those who need help there are the charities and state programs. We need to fix the health care issue but we cannot fix it unless we know how it is broken. For the answer, please see http://www.InteliOrg.com/