| Washington, D.C.—Congressman Steve King today invited Governor Chet Culver to Sioux City to debate the substance of a proposed expansion of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) known in Iowa as “hawk i”. King issued the invitation this morning on Sioux City radio KSCJ while talking with host Randy Renshaw.
Congressman King helped pass the well-intended Iowa “hawk i” law in 1998 in order to help families at 200 percent of poverty to buy health insurance for their children. King also supports an 18 month extension of current SCHIP law funding to help states overcome shortfalls. Such an extension would allow all ideas to be placed on the table and to have a substantive debate after the 2008 Presidential election.
King said, “Iowans expect elected officials to be serious about the laws we consider. Yesterday, Governor Culver questioned my motives for voting against SCHIP expansion. All politics, no substance. I invite Governor Culver to come to western Iowa and debate me in public about the substance of healthcare policy. Iowans deserve substance over political slogans.”
According to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, the proposed SCHIP expansion backed by Gov. Culver would draw-in 2.1 million children of families who already have private health insurance. At the same time, the SCHIP expansion would give coverage to families earning as much as $83,000 who will also pay the Alternative Minimum Tax, also known as the “rich man’s tax”. In order to pay for the SCHIP expansion, the new bill would increase tobacco taxes and rely on an additional 22.4 million Americans to start smoking for continued funding over the next ten years. And most notably, the SCHIP expansion would make it easier for illegal immigrants to get taxpayer funded health insurance.
-30-
|
