House Republican Tells An Outrageous Lie Blaming Democrats For GOP Refusal To Fund Children’s Health Care

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Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK) falsely blamed Senate Democrats for his own party’s refusal to fund the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP).

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Rep. Cole was asked on CNN’s New Day why Republicans haven’t reauthorized CHIP.

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He answered, “You’re going to have to ask the Senate for that. Look, their rules that they adopt that make it very difficult to move it forward, and they have to move forward in a bipartisan way, and I respect that. It’s up to them, but just get the job done, pass a bill. Part of this was everybody was so focused on tax reform, and we get the importance of day-to-day governance. We passed it through the House, and it will be a different bill out of the Senate, and you sit down and make a deal. It’s not that hard.”

Tom Cole was not telling the truth. Democrats oppose the House Republican CHIP bill because it pays for children’s health insurance by taking healthcare away from 700,000 people.

Cole’s point about Democrats in the Senate holding up the bill was also false. Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) admitted during the Senate debate on the tax cuts for the rich that Republicans don’t want to fund to CHIP because the country can’t afford it after the tax cuts, “[L]et me tell you something: we’re going to do CHIP. There’s no question about it in my mind. It’s got to be done the right way. But we, the reason CHIP’s having trouble is because we don’t have money anymore.”

Republicans don’t want to pay for poor children to have healthcare. If the GOP strategy to survive the midterms is to blame Democrats for their own failure to govern, Republicans are in bigger trouble than anyone realized.

Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

Awards and Professional Memberships

Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association