CR Nation

As SCHIP prepares to die at the pen of President Bush, the Politico reports on an internal Clinton White House memo from 1993 that discusses back-up strategies in case the Clintons’ health care reform failed

The Politico reports that “Back in 1993, according to an internal White House staff memo, then-first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton’s staff saw federal coverage of children as a ‘precursor’ to universal coverage.”

The memo further explained that, “Under this approach, health care reform is phased in by population, beginning with children.”

For as inappropriate as this bill is in its current form, what bugs me most about SCHIP is that Republicans created it back in 1997, and are therefore responsible for the any political harm that it creates today.

SCIP reminds me of an old saying by Milton Friedman. The famous economist used to say that “there is nothing more permanent than a temporary government program.”

There can be nothing more permanent about a program sold as a short term solution to children’s health care – then can its transformation into a nationalized government run health care program.