Dahlonega-Lumpkin County Chamber of Commerce

A Weekly e-Newsletter from
Senator Johnny Isakson (R-GA)

January 30, 2009

Dear Friends,

This week, the Senate debated S.275, the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, or SCHIP, bill.  The bill represents a step backwards in trying to ensure that this program remains true to its original intent of providing health care coverage to America’s uninsured, low-income children. The bill as written will divert needed funds from these children and instead enroll individuals who already have private health insurance, who come from higher-income families or who are not American citizens.

S.275 will spend $32.8 billion. It will waive the current requirement that there be a five-year waiting period for legal immigrant children to become eligible for SCHIP and Medicaid benefits. It also makes it easier for illegal immigrants to get federal benefits by dropping the requirement that applicants for Medicaid benefits present documentation showing that they have a legal status.

The legislation fails to prioritize funding for low-income children as SCHIP was originally intended. SCHIP was designed to cover low-income children between 100 and 200 percent of the federal poverty level. This bill will make it easier to enroll children in families whose incomes are above 300 percent of the federal poverty level.

S.275 also provides an earmark that benefits upper-income families in New York and New Jersey over low-income children in the rest of America:  An earmark is provided in the legislation that allows New York and New Jersey to expand their SCHIP programs to families earning up to 400 percent of the federal poverty level.

This bill also backtracks on commitments to prevent families from substituting public coverage for private coverage. Despite strong Republican objections, S.275 dropped an entire section of the earlier bill intended to find ways to minimize this. The CBO analysis of the legislation shows that 400,000 children are likely to drop their existing private coverage as a result.

Despite my vote against this disappointing legislation, it passed in the Senate by a vote of 66 to 32.

Treasury Nominee Timothy Geithner
On Monday, the Senate voted to confirm Timothy Geithner to head the Treasury Department by a vote of 60 to 34.  I voted against confirming Mr. Geithner because while he may be a talented and able man, that fact does not outweigh the fact that he failed to pay payroll taxes on two years’ income at the IMF, even after the IRS audited his returns for the two succeeding years and discovered his failure to pay.  It was only days before his nomination that he came forward to pay the other two years. That was more than just an honest mistake for someone nominated to oversee the Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service. I could not support his nomination.

Economic Stimulus Package
This week the House of Representatives passed an economic stimulus package that President Obama has requested from Congress.  The House version of the stimulus is a non-starter for me because it continues the pattern of throwing money at the symptoms but not getting to the root of our economy’s problem. If you don’t fix housing first, you’re not going to fix anything else. Funding studies of global warming or re-seeding the Capitol lawn aren’t going to stimulate anything. As long as we put off confronting the true problem, there’s not enough money in the world to solve it.

I will not play politics with the pocketbooks of the American people on this. We must find a way to keep people in their homes, stabilize foreclosures and return consumer confidence to the marketplace. Once the housing market is stabilized, you will see investors and small business begin to reinvest in job creating activities that will put hard working Americans back to work.

What’s on Tap?

Next week the Senate will vote on the nomination of Eric H. Holder Jr. to be attorney general, and may consider other Cabinet nominees. Also, the Senate will begin debate on its version of the economic stimulus legislation on Monday.

Sincerely,
Johnny Isakson