Posted on 10/17/2007 4:33:05 AM PDT by Kaslin
House Speaker Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D.-Calif.) blamed “hate radio” for demeaning children who were being used to lobby for an expansion of federally funded health insurance in a press conference late Tuesday morning.
In the run-up to a House vote to override President Bush’s veto of a $35 billion increase to the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, children like the 12-year old Graeme Frost---who suffered brain injuries after a car accident-- have been pushed to the forefront of the debate.
Frost’s position as a so-called “poster child” for SCHIP became controversial when his family’s assets were investigated.
This reporter asked Pelosi “Is it appropriate for opponents of SCHIP expansion to openly question the circumstances that led some children to become spokespeople for that expansion?”
Pelosi replied that she “would not censor” critics and “I can’t control what they have to say,” but much of it was “beneath the integrity of the debate.”
She classified many of the “attacks that impugn children” as coming from “hate radio.”
Pelosi invited Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D.-Nev.) and Sen. Orrin Hatch (R.-Utah), also at the press conference to support SCHIP expansion, to address the question. Both declined.
At another point, Reid did offer that he believed opponents of SCHIP had “mischaracterized and misled” the public.”
The House is currently scheduled to have a vote to override the President’s SCHIP veto on Thursday. President Bush has agreed to expand the program by $5 billion, but Democrats are demanding a $35 billion increase.
When the vote occurs, two-year old Bethany Wilkerson, who experienced heart failure as an infant, is expected to watch members make their vote from a high perch in the visitors gallery that sits above House floor. Her family says she would not be alive without SCHIP.
The override is expected to fall 15 votes short and an intense lobbying effort is being conducted by groups like Americans United for Change, MoveOn.org, and Big Labor on Capitol Hill to change those 15 votes. These groups have aired radio ads in more than 20 Republican members’ home districts to help sway them. These groups also rallied behind Pelosi, Reid and Hatch at the Capitol Hill event.
Reid claimed on Tuesday that 69 Senators support expanding the program by $35 billion. This is two more than the 67 needed to override the veto in that chamber.
Jim Williams, president of the non-profit community based health agency Easter Seals, said more than 300 Easter Seals members and staff were present in Washington to lobby Congress for the expansion. There are also cross-country candlelight vigils being held Tuesday evening for the cause.
Celebrity musician Paul Simon, who co-founded the Children Health Fund, also spoke at the event. He implored critics of SCHIP expansion to “reexamine their conscience and find compassion in your hearts.”
Paul’s co-founder Dr. Irwin Redlener described their organization as a “publicly-funded private health care solution” during the question and answer period of the press conference and said the lack of children’s health coverage in the United States was “a major problem with no other parallel on this Earth.”
Redlener said it was being beaten back “with disparaging or mindless slogans about socializing healthcare.”
He remarked, “If I were Emperor, this bill would be $55 billion, not $35 billion.”
Adults hiding behind children to get what they want.
I have seen it first hand, several times. Its disgusting.
In every case, they have a holier than thou attitude.
Hey nancy girl...the Frosts were GAMING the system.....the kid is a VICTIM of lousy parents.
We don't have Emperors in this country, Dr. Redlener. Perhaps you didn't know that. Or perhaps you wish we did...
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(BTW, did you notice how the Editor of this piece correctly capitalized the title "Emperor", but can't bring himself to capitalize the title "President"?)
Amen....and the Jersy Girls haven’t been heard from since they were exposed!!
Says it all right there.
The kids are being used.
And they are not being attacked, it is their parents that are demanding taxpayers pay for their healthcare that are being exposed as pimps, charlatans, deadbeats, partisan hacks and reprobates.
Dems are HATE-TRIOTS, not Patriots.
Dear mzpeelousy lets talk about how dems treat the troops. Did you see any of out troops being referred to as NAZIs, Pol Pot followers, air raiding villagers, in a manner reminesent of Ghengis Khan. Did you not see any of that over the last six years? Just because you can’t give wealthy surburban puppies socialized health care, no matter how they prostitute their own children for it, is no reason to suggest there is any hate attached to my reservations of calling 25 year olds children. Piss off socialists.
I sent her the following e-mail:
This family can afford to send each of their children to a private school with a per student tuition of $20,000!
They are in a financial position to establish an LLC for preferred tax treatment of their multi-unit rental property and their 3,000 + sq. ft. single family home, AND their THREE SUVs!! The kitchen in their home has concrete countertops, WHICH ARE MORE EXPENSIVE THAN GRANITE!
She’s right. It’s “hate” radio.
We conservatives hate moronic, left-wing, anti-American, anti-military, tax-and-spend treasonous lying scumbags like Pelosi, Kennedy, Boxer, Murtha, Kerry, Hitlery, etc.
Nothing wrong with that.
When have the liberals never used anyone? It’s either the elderly or children. Who will they use next?
And boy, did they ever pick the wrong kid and his family to use as the poster child!
Well, every Democrat attack reinforced in the public mind the fact that the Democrats rely on Untouchable Attack Dogs (UADs). The worst thing the Democrats were able to make people think about Ann was that she was right, but she should have been more polite.
By sticking out her chin and taking the blows that rained down upon her, Ann established the point that the Democrats rely on UADs instead of rational argument. By sacrificing her own self for the cause, she has greatly limited the effectiveness of this technique.
Now, Cindy Sheehan is a has-been. The Jersey Girls are anonymous once again. The Frosts are being beaten back. The only time Democrats use UADs anymore is when they are attacking other Democrats. After all, Elizabeth Edwards is the Mother-Of-All-UADs, but she will only go after Hillary!.
This is the worst yet because the parents are pimping their kids.
This is as bad as the parents that took money from Michael Jackson to allow their kids to stay for the weekend at his ranch.
But you have to acknowedge that a lot of their problems occur when they can't remember if they are driving a car, plane or boat at any particular point in time...
I did not know that ERR America objected to SCHIP! (they’re the only “hate radio” I know about)
Yes, she certainly did. And the Left continues their vain attempt to vilify her. Go Ann!!!!
Every ER in the country is required to treat a person, whether they can pay or not.
Most doctors and hospitals will let you pay a small amount for as long as it takes to pay the bill, even if it is the rest of your life.
She could at least properly attribute the source. An Internet forum is just *not* “hate radio”.
I will refrain from characterizing Pelosi and her nonsense, as the descriptors I would likely use might get me banned/suspended.
Everyone likes clean air, everyone likes dogs, children, mom, dad, apple pie and Chevrolet.
What hard core leftists have done is masterful in a twisted sense, mobilizing huge blocks of people who neither pay taxes, nor vote (and many of those who can, should rightly have absolutely no say in how public monies are allocated.) This sounds absolutely heartless, but it is not - assuming the goal is to reduce dependence on government and social support agencies.
Giving children/minors a say in the political process, testifying before congress, is a new low, though probably not the low by any stretch. It is classic because opponents of any given legislation have to overcome the perception that they are indifferent to the plight of children. How sick is that?
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