Clinton hits GOP over lack of children’s health funding

Hillary Clinton is pushing Congress to fund the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), denouncing Republicans for passing tax cuts while the program’s authorization has expired. 

“I’m going to keep tweeting about this, and speaking out every chance I get, until it is fixed,” the former Democratic presidential nominee tweeted on Thursday. 

The Children’s Health Insurance Program, which provides health care for 9 million kids & has been reauthorized on a bipartisan basis every year for almost 2 decades, is hanging in limbo because Congress let it expire over 2 months ago.

— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) December 7, 2017 

How is it that in the middle of dividing up $1.5 trillion dollars between corporations & the ultra-wealthy, Republicans can’t find the time & money to take care of children? These are perverse priorities. Congress needs to pass CHIP now, as they have every year since the 1990s.

— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) December 7, 2017

The authorization for CHIP, which covers 9 million children, expired on Sept. 30, but no states have yet run out of money. Several states are in danger of running out soon, though, some by the end of the year. 

While funding for the program has been bogged down in partisan fighting over how to pay for it, CHIP money is expected to be added to a year-end spending package later this month. 

Congressional Democrats, in particular, are making CHIP funding a key demand.

So in these surreal times, let’s rally together & take action. Call your House and Senate members at 202-224-3121 and tell them to take care of kids now and protect our seniors, the poor & vulnerable from future attacks. Tell them that it’s the very least they can do.

— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) December 7, 2017