Underdogs Win in Washington, for Once

By Congressman Steve King   January 18, 2008

 

In 1969, on the eve of Superbowl III, the brash quarterback of the underdog New York Jets, Joe Namath, famously said, “We’re gonna win the game.  I guarantee it!”  The brash statement set off a media frenzy, and the highly favored Baltimore Colts were soundly beaten by Namath and the upstart Jets, 16-7.  The historic victory brought about the merger of the old NFL and the upstart AFL.  Namath, after the game said, “There are a lot of underdogs in the world. Maybe it meant something to the underdogs in life.”

 

The taxpayer is always the underdog.  When I voted “NO” on $51.5 billion of wasteful spending on Hurricane Katrina, because there was no responsible plan, others said it was heartless.  The history of the money going to Gucci bags and massage parlors speaks for itself today.

 

Last fall, I predicted the outcome of the national debate over the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), or hawk-i as we call it in Iowa.  In the face of criticism throughout the state, I opposed the dramatic expansion of SCHIP and called the expansion to 400% of poverty the act of laying the cornerstone of socialized medicine.

 

Last October 18^th, I said, “After all the posturing and theatrics [over the SCHIP debate], I predict we will get a better deal for poor kids and taxpayers.  I will report the results back to Iowans.  You will be able to keep score by the billions of dollars that holding the line will save taxpayers.”

 

 Three months later, the underdog taxpayers pulled off the upset and held the line at 200% of poverty.  The persistence paid off with a far better deal for taxpayers and a very good deal for poor kids.  Both kids and taxpayers pulled off an upset and defeated the big government agenda of socialized medicine.

 

The SCHIP bill I co-sponsored last summer became law.  It extends the current program for 18 months to get us past the “silly season” of the Presidential election.  It provides health insurance for children whose families earn up to 200% of poverty but don’t qualify for Medicaid.  The new law also provides money for states that have a short-fall in their SCHIP budgets.

 

Speaker Pelosi and Governor Culver tried to push SCHIP bills through Congress that reflected her San Francisco agenda and values; not Iowa Midwestern common sense.  Their two bills would have given taxpayer funded health insurance to Iowa families making between $77,437 and $103,250 and would have, according to the Congressional Budget Office, opened the door to $6.5 billion in Medicaid mostly to illegal aliens.  That’s not a proposal for poor kids, that’s a proposal for the cornerstone of socialized medicine.

 

When President Bush signed the 18 month extension into law, poor kids won because the new bill focused resources on them, instead of spreading assistance to illegal aliens and children of wealthy families making as much as $103,000.  

 

The new law also saves American taxpayers $35.6 billion off the Pelosi-Culver bill. 

 

How much money is $35.6 billion?  Here are some examples:

 

·         We could put a new $30,000 car in the driveway of every one of Iowa’s 1.2 million households. 

 

·         We could build 178 ethanol plants, each producing 100 million gallons of ethanol per year, providing a total of 17.8 billion gallons of ethanol every year (quadrupling America’s current annual production).

 

·         We could construct 17,800 cutting edge wind turbines at $2 million each, providing enough electricity to power 25 million homes.

 

But Speaker Nancy Pelosi is forcing her liberal San Francisco politics on America once again.  This Wednesday, she is forcing a vote on an old Presidential veto of SCHIP even though she agreed to a compromise last month that has already been signed into law. 

 

There is no point in attempting a veto override vote except to attempt to score cynical political points.

 

Over the course of the SCHIP debate, Governor Culver and other Iowa activists crossed their fingers behind their back and denied that their bloated SCHIP bill was the cornerstone of socialized medicine.  Unfortunately for Culver, at Drake University on November 16^th, former Governor Vilsack revealed the truth behind the liberal’s SCHIP proposal when he called it, “a commitment to universal coverage.”

 

The debate is over.  A sensible SCHIP law has been signed.  Poor children never lost their coverage and never were in danger of losing it like the liberals claimed.  Pelosi, Culver and all the liberals were denied their cornerstone of socialized medicine.  But Pelosi will still force Congress to vote again on SCHIP this Wednesday- useless, cynical politics.

 

The underdog taxpayers and kids across America remain the upset victors.  They saved $35.6 billion and the kids win twice.  They get health insurance and they avoid having the debt for socialized medicine pushed off onto them to pay in their productive years.