Arcuri Still Telling Lies About SCHIP

Listening to Rep. Michael Arcuri you’d think the sky was falling on poor children. The congressman has bought into the rhetoric of Washington Democrats and is deliberately misleading his constituents about the program. It’s a shameful act, but one we’ve come to expect from Arcuri.

A classic case is this WKTV story about Arcuri’s visit to the Upstate Cerebral Palsy Children’s Center — a perfect photo opportunity for the pandering politician to play political games in Utica.

About 800 children whose families use Child Health Plus are enrolled at UCP. Without this financial support, those families would face some serious hardships.

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Democrats in congress say they aren’t giving up on their expanded SCHIP bill, which was vetoed by President Bush.

“This is not a benefit to wealthy people who can afford it,” Arcuri said. “This is not going to pull people with an insurance program. This is going to give insurance to people who need it most who to the working class to people who can’t afford it for their children not for themselves.”

It’s bad enough that WKTV fails to check the facts, but what’s even worse is that they let Arcuri get away with spinning the story.

For starters, SCHIP isn’t going away. The program was extended until mid-November to give lawmakers time to work out a compromise. That’s hardly ever reported, and for good reason — Democrats such as Arcuri want you to believe poor kids are living without health insurance.

It’s also important to remember that no one will lose coverage under President Bush’s plan. The White House is insisting that poor kids are covered first, which should be the priority of the Upstate Cerebral Palsy Children’s Center. Bush doesn’t want to expand the program to families making $83,000 per year as New York would like to do — hardly “wealthy” in Arcuri’s own words, but certainly not poor either.

Constituent Urges Arcuri to Compromise on SCHIP

One of Rep. Michael Arcuri’s constituents doesn’t like the funding scheme Democrats devised to pay for an expanded version of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). In a letter to Arcuri, Paul Wolber asked that his congressman “find another source of funding for the SCHIP expansion; and … find a compromise that will help to keep our nation’s children both healthy and insured.”

I cannot in good conscience support any proposal which would place such oppressive tax burdens on a single category of legal consumer products; namely tobacco products in this case.

Unfortunately, Hodes suggests taxing other industries in addition to tobacco. Then again, it’s not surprising given that he boasts of being “a staunch Democrat.”

Arcuri Faces the $83,000 Question on SCHIP

The Oneonta Daily Star chided President Bush for vetoing the Democrats’ $35-billion expansion of SCHIP, a bill that would grant New York families earning up to $83,000 per year government-run health care. With the House expected to take up the measure tomorrow, our eyes will be on Rep. Michael Arcuri.

There’s no doubt that Arcuri will vote to override Bush’s veto, but what he does next could indicate whether he’s going to continue politicizing the debate over children’s health care or work toward a solution. Unfortunately for the residents of the 24th District, Arcuri is likely to play political games.

Rep. Michael Arcuri, D-Utica, pointed out that nearly 1,300 children in Otsego County were affected by New York’s version of SCHIP, Child Health Plus.

“As a father,” Arcuri said, “I know the worry parents face when a child gets sick and how critical health insurance is to ensure preventative care. By expanding health care to uninsured children in New York, we can improve access to preventative care, decreasing trips to the emergency room and costly, more severe illnesses down the road.”

Arcuri’s misleading comments fail to inform constituents that Republicans support an reauthorization of SCHIP to cover poor kids, insisting that they come before adults and other middle-income families. But in Arcuri’s socialist fantasy land, he’d like to turn the program into a government-run system that extends far beyond its original intent. Shame on him.

Arcuri Fails to Secure $2 Million HUD Grant

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development turned down the city of Utica’s request for a $2 million federal grant toward lead control, leaving residents disappointed and Rep. Michael Arcuri dumbfounded, the Observer-Dispatch reported today.

Arcuri, D-Utica, expressed his disappointment and said during the application process he sent a letter of support to U.S. Housing and Urban Development.

“It’s important to remember that these grants are awarded by HUD on a competitive basis and that, while the city of Utica was unsuccessful in securing one of these grants this year, they are free to reapply next year,” he said.

Utica attorney Mo Athari specializes in lead poising cases and said it’s a travesty the grant was not approved since lead exposure is such a problem here.

The article quotes Oneida County executive candidate Leon Koziol, who briefly challenged Arcuri for Congress in 2006 before waging a losing bid for state Senate. “It’s an extreme disappointment,” Koziol told the O-D, “one that I would not allow.”