Thursday, October 18, 2007

Bush's Reason For Vetoing SCHIP

"But SCHIP helps the poor. Bush is hurting the poor."

Yes it does. But it can also be abused by people making over $100,000 per year. The National SCHIP cut off for earned income would be set at 300% of the poverty level. Only 10 states currently have percents that high, and Jersey has the highest at 350%. To get an idea of how much that is, there is a graphic of that level based on the number in a household over at the 2007 Federal Poverty Guidelines.

However, not included in that 300% are these;

Social Security
Capital Gains (ex. Mutual Fund Growth)
Ordinary Dividends (ex. Stock growth)

Nearly 1/2 of all American Adults, and nearly 60% of children live within the 300% range. That is far too many people to be considered a bill for the "poor." Reduce the cut off to 200%, then bring the bill back to the debate table. If individual states want to have higher cut offs, then let them do that on their own.