04.03.07
The CHIP Debate And Rep. Turner
Let’s see If this is right.
Sylvester Turner, a Democrat and Tom Craddick loayalist, is spearheading the CHIP bill in the house. It has no chance of passing the Senate and getting signed by the governor in the form that Rep. Turner is mandating (he’s not recommending many amendments to the bill) that it be passed in the House. Therefore whatever happens to CHIP this session will be done in a conference committee, which, more than likely, will have a majority of Republicans.
So what is going on today? Well, Rep. Turner is giving cover to Republicans in the House by giving them a watered down CHIP bill that they can vote for and use in the election in 2008. They can say they voted to increase CHIP funding. He’s also giving Democrats a tough choice of either voting for this watered down bill so their opponents won’t be able to say they voted against the children in the next election. Or they can voted against this watered down bill, that everyone knows will never make through the process in its current form, and be labled as voting against the children.
Did I also mention that Rep. Turner will use this to his advantage against a primary challenger in ’06. Not to mention how disgusting it is to have a Democrat doing the GOP’s dirty work for them. Oh yeah, and not matter what kind of a step Rep. Turner tries to say this is, it’s still a far, far cry from repairing the damage that was done to CHIP in 2003.
Of course all of this is moot if Rep. Talton calls a point of order.