Corzine Reacts to the Misinformation Campaign by the White House on SCHIP

Governor Corzine argued very well why this administration does not want to cover kids, not for money reasons, but for philosophy reasons, i.e. socialized medicine. Corzine also responded to Bush’s criticism that states such as New Jersey spend “more SCHIP money on adults than they do on children.” “We cover parents up to 133 percent of poverty,” he said. “That’s $27,000 for a family of four. In New Jersey, that is poverty. … Yes, the cost of insurance for adults is more than for young folks, for kids, but that is not going to middle class or even moderate income families. Very low income.”

New Jersey is one of eight states that has sued the Bush administration for making it harder for them to cover more families under SCHIP. Additionally, the bill Bush vetoed actually put the poorest children “first in line” for benefits. It seems that in order to fund the Iraq war, poor and middle-income children come last for this administration. Bush said of the measure we can't spend 22 billion American children, because we need 200 billion for Iraq. He said "22 billion is a lot of money."