Reverse Robin Hood: Congress’ Regressive SCHIP Expansion

For Release: September 25, 2007
Contact: David Almasi at (202) 543-4110 or dalmasi@nationalcenter.org

Reverse Robin Hood: Congress’ Regressive SCHIP Expansion
Would Tax Poor to Fund Health Insurance
for Middle and Upper-Middle Class

Washington, D.C. - A successful effort by Congress to expand the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) by $35 billion over five years over White House protests would require low-income Americans to subsidize health insurance for children and young adults in the middle and upper-middle classes, says a September 2007 paper by David Hogberg, Ph.D. published by the National Center for Public Policy Research.

If SCHIP is expanded as Congress now proposes, says the paper, people making under 200 percent of the poverty line will subsidize health insurance for children and young adults in families over 200 percent, perhaps as high as 400 percent, over the poverty line:

Both SCHIP bills passed by Congress take the tax revenues from those under 200 percent of the poverty level and give it to those children who live in families above 200 percent of poverty, likely all the way up to 400 percent of the poverty level… It is not inconceivable that a parent with one child with an income of $13,690 will be funding benefits for two children in a family of four with an income of $82,600. In short, SCHIP expansion would result in families whose income puts them in the bottom 15 percent of households funding benefits for children who are in families close to the top 25 percent of households.

The paper also notes that Congress supports reimbursing states for SCHIP expenses for middle and upper income children and young adults at a higher rate than it reimburses Medicaid expenses spent on the poor:

SCHIP is supposed to insure children for families that make too much money to qualify for Medicaid. Presumably, then, children on Medicaid are in families that are poorer than are children on SCHIP. Yet the federal government matches the dollars states spend on SCHIP at a proportionally higher rate than it does Medicaid. In 2006, states spent a total of about $132 billion on Medicaid, while the federal government matched that with $165 billion. That means, on average, the federal government spends 1.2 dollars on Medicaid for every one dollar the states spend. For that same year, states spent almost $2.4 billion on SCHIP and the federal government sent the states $4.8 billion in matching funds.20 Thus, the federal government spends two dollars on SCHIP for every one dollar the states spend. In short, the federal government spends proportionally more on the children in SCHIP than it does on the poorer children in Medicaid.

The paper, “SCHIP Expansion: Socialized Medicine on the Installment Plan,” by David Hogberg, Ph.D., is available online at www.nationalcenter.org/NPA560.html.

The National Center for Public Policy Research, founded in 1982, is a non-partisan, non-profit educational foundation based in Washington, D.C.

More Evidence Liberals Only Like Rules That Help Them

The results of a Rasmussen poll of typically liberal Californians demonstrates how liberals don’t like ideas if it means they will lose power:

A proposal has been made in California that would award one Electoral Vote to the winner of each Congressional District along with two Electoral Votes for the statewide winner. In a theoretical sense, 47% of California voters think that’s a good idea. Thirty-one percent (31%) disagree while 23% are not sure.

Ok, you with me so far? Now consider this:

However, even that tepid level of support dissipates when voters learn that a change in California could significantly increase the number of Republican Electoral Votes. Once that is factored into the equation, support drops to 38% and opposition increases to 41%.

Absolutely a laugh riot!

But then again, what do you expect from the left! Shouldn’t it be a good idea regardless of who it helps?

Me personally? I’m not a fan of splitting electoral votes in any state. I favor winner takes all.

Va. Appointee Resigns After Videos

Associated Press

RICHMOND, Va. - A member of the state’s Commission of Immigration resigned Thursday, a few hours after Gov. Timothy M. Kaine was told about online videos showing the appointee condemning Israel and advocating “the jihad way.” Kaine issued a statement saying he had accepted the resignation of Dr. Esam S. Omeish. He said Omeish offered to resign because he didn’t want anything to distract the work of the commission. In a video that appears on YouTube, Omeish, who is president of the Muslim American Society and chief of the division of general surgery at INOVA Alexandria Hospital, is shown at an August 2006 rally in Washington denouncing an invasion of Lebanon by the “Israeli war machine.”

The Voice

Deputy arrested on border

Erica Heartquist Reports

A Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Deputy is under investigation; accused of human smuggling. The feds say Octavio Cruz got caught trying to drive an illegal immigrant through the De Concini Port of Entry, late Tuesday. “These are the people that are supposed to be protecting us? I mean, what’s going on?” said one Santa Cruz County resident. Another woman, who also lives in Santa Cruz County told News 4, “It’s pretty scary because they should be protecting us, not them doing illegal things.”

The Voice

Illegal alien skips trial for smuggling aliens

Bob Campbell

Margarito “Mike” Ibañez’ chair at the defense table was empty Tuesday while he was tried in absentia in U. S. District Court for transporting undocumented workers for financial gain. Judge Robert Junell had adjourned the seven-man, five-woman jury at 11 a.m. Monday after giving up on the 38-year-old Mexican citizen from El Paso and issuing a bench warrant for the arrest of the accused coyote, a term for people who smuggle illegal immigrants into the U.S. Assistant U.S. Attorney John Klassen and court-appointed defense lawyer Scott Tidwell rested their cases about 3:30 p.m. Tuesday and Junell set final arguments for 9 a.m. today in the case in which Ibañez was allegedly implicated after the fact.

The Voice

House Votes For More Socialism

The House on Tuesday approved an expansion of a health insurance program that would cover 10 million poor children at a cost of $35 billion, but fell short of the two-thirds majority needed to override a veto threatened by President Bush.

The vote was closely watched by the states, including California. The program, a federal-state partnership that now provides insurance for an estimated 6.6 million children, expires next week. If the program isn’t extended, millions of children could - at least temporarily - lose their health insurance.

Any of you sniveling Marxists out there want to point to the authority for such a program in the Constitution? And besides, I though that we had Medicaid to cover the medical costs of the “poor”? Guess that program wasn’t working too well …

Rights end when you forcibly reach into the pockets of another person to fund their existence.

Danbury sued over immigration enforcement

By DAVE COLLINS

DANBURY, Conn. - A federal civil rights lawsuit filed Wednesday accuses Danbury of violating the constitutional rights of laborers last year during a sting targeting illegal immigrants. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of 10 men arrested a year ago. It accuses Danbury officials of making illegal immigration arrests and discriminatory law enforcement. The lawsuit contends Danbury has tried to enforce immigration laws without the necessary federal authority. Danbury police routinely stop Latino drivers to investigate their immigration status, the lawsuit alleges. The plaintiffs allege they were arrested without probable cause.

The Voice

Jim Kouri Upcoming Media Appearance

Jim Kouri, a contributor to our sister site The Land of the Free, has an upcoming media appearance on October 2.

www.aphf.org/nacop.html

The National Association of Chiefs of Police is a 501 (c) (3) nonprofit, tax exempt, educational association of command law enforcement officers within the United States, its territories and military forces.

NACOP public information officer Jim Kouri will appear on the radio show “Born on the 4th of July” on Tuesday, October 2, 2007 at 12:00 Noon (Mountain Time), 2 PM (et), to discuss border security. The show is aired on KTKK-AM in Salt Lake City, Utah. The show may also be heard on the Internet.

Interview on K-TALK RADIO KTKK AM 630 in Salt Lake City www.k-talk.com.

Illinois Sued Over Immigration Stance

The Bush administration sued the State of Illinois yesterday, hoping to block a new state law that bars employers from using a federal database to verify that immigrant job applicants are in the United States legally and are authorized to work.
With the suit, officials said, the administration is going on the offensive in the courts in response to cases intended to stall a crackdown on illegal immigration that the federal authorities announced last month.

“We will vigorously contest any effort to impede our enforcement measures,” the Homeland Security secretary, Michael Chertoff, said yesterday in a telephone interview.

The suit, brought by Mr. Chertoff’s department, seeks to stop Illinois from putting into effect a law that forbids employers from enrolling in the federal worker verification database program.

The program, formerly known as Basic Pilot, was renamed E-Verify last month.

Under the Illinois statute, the ban would remain until Washington certifies that the databases used to verify workers’ eligibility are 99 percent accurate.

Supporters of the law say the Social Security Administration and Homeland Security Department databases used to confirm eligibility are riddled with errors and could result in the denial of jobs to legal workers, including citizens.

Basically what you have here a state looking for a reason to not abide by immigration law and seeking a way around it. Even if there are errors like there are in other databases is that a reason to not use it as a tool? Is Illinois going to start telling recipients of Social Security in their state that because there are errors in the system that they will not be allowed to collect their checks?

This defense is indefensible.

11-year-old immigrant tells judge he is going to kill him

By Harry Hitzeman

In mid-October of 2002, an 11-year-old from Aurora was before a juvenile judge, facing a nine-day youth home sentence for a burglary charge. Instead of expressing remorse or empathy for the victim, the boy lashed out. “I’m going to kill you,” the boy told the judge, according to testimony Tuesday from Thomas Burke, senior intensive probation officer with DuPage County. Prosecutors want to try the boy — who turns 16 next month — in adult court in the murder of Marilyn Bethell, a 47-year-old substance abuse counselor from Aurora who worked in Hoffman Estates.

The Voice