Durbin Slips on SCHIP

Yesterday Sen. Dick Durbin spoke as the "Voice of the People" in the Trib on SCHIP. Well, here's what the people really think. They don't want to throw the babies out with the bathwater. Washington Times:

In the latest Gallup poll, more than half of respondents (52 percent) favor reserving most SCHIP benefits for families earning less than 200 percent of the poverty line, or $41,000. This is President Bush's position. Only 40 percent support Democratic proposals to extend benefits to families earning $62,000.

That would be the commonsensical view: SCHIP should benefit the truly needy, not middle-class families. It should benefit poor children, not middle-class adults. Gallup didn't poll respondents on whether families earning as much as $80,000 should partake — of which, indeed, under the Democratic proposal, at least some could. "Would you like a platinum-plated stroller with your SCHIP benefits?" it might well ask.

The new poll also shows public worry over the impact on existing private health plans. Fifty-five percent worry that some currently enrolled in private plans will opt for SCHIP, which would affect premiums for everyone else were it come to pass.

The same holds for the Democrat approach in Illinois--creating an expensive new entitlement for all when the state can't pay its current bills. (And maybe Sen. Durbin should at least pick up the phone and get schooled.)

Related post: GOP Laboratory of Ideas