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President Obama and most of the press cheered the passage of the State Children's Health Insurance Program, but can SCHIP (pronounced "ship") stay afloat long-term? President Barack Obama said when he signed into law a new expanded version of the State Children's Health Insurance Program on February 4: "No child should be receiving his care in the emergency room in the middle of the night." Obviously, he doesn't realize that children with SCHIP coverage very often get their medical care in emergency rooms — at all times of the day, even more frequently than uninsured people do. The Heritage Foundation...

Using borrowed money for a band-aid bailout of the economy should seem backwards to most people. However, it likely is a planned strategy to promote radical change. Those naively believing that President Obama is simply rewarding his far-left base, and will then move to the political center, must wise up. The assumption that Obama will need the nation to prosper in order to protect the 2010 mid-term election incorrectly assumes that he esteems free market capitalism. He does not. Rather than win through superior ideas and policies, the Democrat plan for success in the mid-term elections is to win by...

_House Passes Senate SCHIP Bill;President Signs Bill_ On Wednesday, Feb. 4, the U.S. House passed by a margin of 290 to 135 the U.S. Senate version of the bill to expand the State Children's Health Insurance Program, (S.C.H.I.P.)... President has signed the legislation into law. Below are the final tax rates on cigarettes and tobacco products that will go into effect on April 1, 2009 :SCHIP Cigarette and Tobacco Tax RatesProduct Current Rates Through March 31, 2009 and Cigarette and Tobacco Tax Rate April, 1 2009 * Pack Cigarettes:39¢ per pack$1.0066 per pack * Large Cigars:20.719% of manufacturer's price;...

Posted by Michael F. Cannon @ Cato@LibertyDestination Casa Blanca has posted their hour-long program — featuring yours truly — on the State Children’s Health Insurance Program expansion that President Obama just signed into law (the utter lack of evidence of effectiveness notwithstanding). During the program, I shatter the myths that SCHIP is for low-income children, that it’s a cost-effective way of improving children’s health, etc. I guess we know what you’ll be doing for the next hour.

The following two excerpts are two things that have changed in the SCHIP legislation that Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi are so proud of getting passed: The new law contains other provisions intended to eliminate enrollment barriers that are likely to affect some New Mexicans. (article is from a NM journal) Under existing law, legal immigrants must show they have lived in the United States at least five years to qualify for SCHIP. The new law eliminates the so-called five-year bar, and allows children and pregnant women to enroll immediately in Medicaid or SCHIP, Gail Evans, legal director at the...

Being a Democrat can mean several things - possessing the ability to emote as a means of creating policy, having the facility to substitute feelings for wisdom, or the innate instinct to never think what happens next. It's a cushy intellectual life, to be sure.Take the President's signing of the so-called S-CHIP bill into law last week - a measure which expands (fancy that) the State Children's Health Insurance Program by roughly $35 billion over the next five years.President Obama may not have asked anyone to read his lips, but you'll recall he did promise no new taxes of...

By signing SCHIP bill, Obama breaks campaign promise not to raise taxes on those making under $250,000 per year... Obama’s signature puts into effect a 156 percent increase in the federal excise tax on tobacco, a hike of 61 cents per pack... Shouldering the burden of this tax increase are the middle- and low-income Americans Obama said he would not raise taxes on...

The House Ways and Means Committee introduced the newest incarnation of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) today. The International Premium Cigar & Pipe Retailers Association (IPCPR) reported in an email that the legislation would impose a revised federal excise tax on large cigars—52.4 percent, with a maximum tax cap of 40 cents per cigar. It was feared throughout the cigar industry that the cap would be much higher. The original version called for a $10 cap, and earlier versions had a cap of $3 per cigar. The tax is currently capped at five cents. The bill, which seeks...

It took only 16 days for President Obama to break his campaign promise not to raise taxes on the poor. When President Obama signed the SCHIP bill, increasing the excise tax on Tobacco products by 156%, he raise taxes on 55% of smokers who are the “working poor” and the 25% of smokers who live below the poverty line. This bill is to provide health care to many of these smokers’ children. If he cared about the health of these children, the purpose of the cigarette tax would be to deter smoking because many children from homes of smokers require...

Obama Signs SCHIP Legislation, Says Bill Is 'First Step' Toward Universal Health CoverageMain Category: Medicare / Medicaid / SCHIP Article Date: 06 Feb 2009 - 5:00 PST President Obama on Wednesday signed into law a bill (HR 2) that will reauthorize and expand SCHIP to an additional four million children, the AP/San Francisco Chronicle reports. Obama said that expanding the program is "the first step" to achieving universal health coverage in the U.S. (Freking/Elliot, AP/San Francisco Chronicle, 2/5). The House cleared the final version of the measure by a vote of 290-135 earlier in the day. Forty Republicans voted in...

President Barack Obama has called on HHS to immediately withdraw a directive that set tighter enrollment requirements for higher-income children under the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, a move that is seen by some as opening the door for state expansion of the program. The directive, first issued on Aug. 17, 2007, required states to first enroll 95% of children in families earning less than 200% of the federal poverty level—$42,400 for a family of four—before they could enroll children in families earning more than 250% of the federal poverty level. “These requirements have limited coverage under several state plans...

President Barack Obama's Capitol Hill colleagues are urging him to act swiftly on health care reform.Echoing a number of prominent legislators, senior congressmen Jim Cooper, D-Tenn., and Michael Castle, R-Del., recently wrote that the president must quickly enact the health care measures he'd promised on the campaign trail, noting that "every day we wait we lose another opportunity." There should be a sense of urgency surrounding health care reform. But hustling through bad policies is worse than doing nothing — and the Obama health care platform is chock-full of bad policies. Take the president's plan to legally require that children...

SCHIP Will Increase RYO Tax Over 2,200%! RYOrevolution.com was founded for the sole purpose of educating smokers about the higher quality Roll Your Own tobacco alternatives to overtaxed and overpriced pre-made cigarettes. Federal and State Tobacco Tax information was published for informational purposes only, political editorials were relegated to small sub-sections of the RYO Revolution Discussion Forums. Recent action by Congress however has forced me to speak out, I can no longer stand by silently and watch this affront against smokers, particularly those who enjoy Roll Your Own Tobacco or have been forced to switch to RYO due to limited...

President Barack Obama kept one campaign pledge Wednesday afternoon and at the same time violated another when he signed into law the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, which extends health care coverage to 11 million low-income children. The White House views the SCHIP legislation as a down payment on Obama’s pledge to provide universal health care by the end of his first term. The bill ran into some partisan resistance because it allows states for the first time to use federal money to cover children and pregnant women who are legal immigrants. But Obama’s 5 p.m. signing came barely three...

One would never guess that America is experiencing one of the worst recessions in history. Considering the legislation being passed on the federal level and proposals being made on the state level, one would think that Americans are enjoying tremendous excesses and the government simply wants to partake. Yesterday, Obama signed into law the SCHIP modifications that would expand coverage to more children. The pitfalls of this legislation are too numerous to list, the burden on the taxpayer is growing. Under the new applicants will no longer have to provide social security numbers when filing for aid, thereby allowing illegals...

As expected, the House today gave final approval to the S-CHIP government health care expansion funded with a massive tax hike on smokers. President Obama is set to sign the bill amid great “progressive” fanfare. The kiddie human shield strategy strikes again. The roll call vote is up here. The vote was 290-135. I’ve broken down the list of Republicans who supported this universal health care Trojan Horse. Take note: Austria Bono Mack Buchanan Cao Capito Castle Dent Diaz-Balart, L. Diaz-Balart, M. Ehlers Emerson Frelinghuysen Gerlach King (NY) Kirk Lance LaTourette Lee (NY) LoBiondo McCotter McHugh Miller (MI) Moran (KS)...

The MSM will tell you that Obama signed the SCHIP bill, which provides free (read Socialist) health care to children. What they bury in the love-fest of good liberal intentions is the fact that taxes were raised on tobacco products, which are used disproportionately by middle and working class folks. More . . .

Children's health depends on you. Please help, a life you safe could be your neighbors child. If you only smoke two packs a day(60 packs a month=$60.61) you could pay for a child's health insurance each month. Wednesday, February 4, 2009 | President Barack Hussein Obama will raise taxes this afternoon with his signature on the SCHIP bill scheduled to pass the House of Representatives today. (federal tax to $1.01 per pack)

Press Releases Contact: Brendan Daly/Nadeam Elshami 202-226-7616 For Immediate Release 02/04/2009 Pelosi: ‘Today is a Very Special Day for Us in the House; We Are Going to Help 11 Million Children’ Washington, D.C. – Speaker Nancy Pelosi and parents and children affected by the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) held a photo opportunity this morning before the final House vote on the bill, which President Obama will sign into law this afternoon. Below are the Speaker’s remarks and answer to a reporter’s question: “This is a very special day for us in the House of Representatives and in the...

The House overwhelmingly approved a bill extending health coverage to 4 million uninsured children, giving President Barack Obama a much-needed win on health care and taking a first step toward his promise of universal coverage. The Democratic-controlled House passed the bill 290-135 on Wednesday, with 40 Republicans backing it. Obama plans to sign it into law later in the day. The bill calls for spending an additional $32.8 billion on the State Children's Health Insurance Program. Lawmakers generated that revenue through a much higher federal tobacco tax. "Unemployment keeps rising and people are going from worried to scared," Rep. Rosa...