Clay Robison: CHIP could affect well-being of Cornyn's re-election campaign
2007-08-13
Source: San Antonio Express-News
In the words of Democratic political consultant Kelly Fero, the 1.4 million Texas children without health insurance are "the gift that keeps on giving." He wasn't talking, of course, about the personal suffering that many of the kids endure or the huge economic and social losses they pose, both now and for the future.
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rss feedHe was talking about the politics of health care, and how Texas Democrats have increasingly been putting Texas Republicans on the defensive since state GOP leaders orchestrated deep cuts in the Children's Health Insurance Program to avoid raising state taxes four years ago.
The cuts were believed to be a factor in the unseating of several incumbent legislators - mostly Republicans but also a couple of conservative Democrats - during the 2004 and 2006 elections.
The bleeding was enough to prompt Speaker Tom Craddick and other Republican lawmakers to support legislation last spring restoring some of the reductions in the CHIP program, which insures children of working parents who earn too much to qualify for Medicaid but can't afford to buy their own health coverage.
But, with Texas' rate of uninsured children still the highest in the country, Democrats promise to hammer away at more Republican state legislators next year. They also will use the health care issue - most likely in a double-barreled assault - to try to unseat U.S. Sen. John Cornyn.
Just before the congressional summer recess, Cornyn voted against the Senate's approval of a bill to increase federal funding for CHIP by $35 billion over the next five years. U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison voted for it.
