Kids Come First Act Promoted by College Paper

Eastern Michigan University paper, Eastern Echo, has coverage of Kerry’s Kids Come First Act:

Kids Come First Act needs support

By Daniel Sczokak / Staff Writer
MONDAY, JANUARY 9, 2006

“They won’t put kids first, but we will!” Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry announced in his e-mail newsletter on Jan. 26, 2005.

He’s referring to the Kids Come First Act, a health care bill he introduced a year ago as S.114. He continues to be optimistic, although it doesn’t look like it will become a law anytime soon.

In the newsletter, which is affiliated with JohnKerry.com, the former presidential candidate told his subscribers that 11 million American children don’t have health insurance.

The Kids Come First Act is supposed to correct this problem by amending titles XIX and XXI of the Social Security Act and providing coverage to uninsured children under the age of 21.

According to KeepingAmericasPromise.com, a Web site that promotes Kerry’s agenda in the Senate, 33 percent of children with chronic asthma cannot get necessary medications and 25 percent aren’t up to date on basic immunizations.

The compassionate conservative philosophy dictates that the government’s obligation is to help people who can’t help themselves. Since children are helpless when it comes to obtaining their own health insurance, you’d think that at least a few republicans would be willing to co-sponsor bill S.114.

But at the time I’m writing this, not a single republican senator has. Only 11, all democrats, have become sponsors or co-sponsors so far.

The democrats should also be held responsible for their failure to support the Kids Come First Act. Most of the 45 democratic senators haven’t co-sponsored it, including Michigan’s Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow.

The Kids Come First Act will require money from taxpayers. But so have other activities in which the Senate has been engaging.

They recently voted to raise their own salaries by $3,300 a year and to extend President Bush’s tax cuts for America’s wealthiest citizens. Levin only voted for the former but Stabenow voted for both.

I’ve emailed and called Michigan’s senators with encouragements to become co-sponsors of the Kids Come First Act. I asked why they made the decision not to support it.

They haven’t responded, nor do I expect them to. I do expect them to listen. And I expect them to listen to your concerns.

I urge all readers of the Eastern Echo to contact Levin and Stabenow and tell them to co-sponsor the Kids Come First Act. Contact information can be found at their official websites, stabenow.senate.gov and levin.senate.gov.

They can be reached with a letter, email or phone call. So take your pick and go for it.