U.S. Sen. Richard Burr is gaining some prime face time today on C-SPAN2, spending some 20 minutes offering reasons why the Democrats' bill to expand the State Children's Health Insurance Program is a bad idea.
Burr, a Winston-Salem Republican, waxed poetic about his days in the House helping write the bill, and he said today it's gone too far, Barb Barrett reports.
Among his points:
* The Democrats' bill would cover 5.4 million new children, including more than 2 million already covered by their parents.
* The Republicans have an amendment that would cover more than 3 million children, but would cost less.
Mostly, Burr said, today’s debate ought to be about health care coverage in general — not just SCHIP.
"This is another attempt to grow the size of the government program to include more Americans into it without taking on the tough task of debating how in the hell do we fix health care in this country?" Burr said on the Senate floor. "What are the reforms that must take place so that every American has the opportunity to be insured?"
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Since when has this been a concern of Burr's?"
What he said:
"What are the reforms that must take place so that every American has the opportunity to be insured?"
What he meant:
"What the the reforms that must take place so that every American has the chance to enrich the shareholders of insurance companies?"