Congresswoman Mary Bono Radio Address
  October 19, 2007

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TRANSCRIPT:

Hello, I’m Mary Bono, and I have the privilege of representing California’s 45th Congressional District, and yesterday, I was one of 44 Republicans in the House of Representatives who voted to override President Bush’s veto of legislation expanding the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, or, as it is more commonly known, SCHIP.

I did so because I believed the bill passed by the Democrat Congress last month to be a reasonable compromise that provides vital services to millions of low-income children.

At the same time, I am disappointed to say that when I voted for the bill, I knew that it had little chance to become the law of the land. All of us in the Congress knew that the President’s highest priority was to ensure that it was poor children SCHIP was covering first and foremost.

That is a reasonable, and understandable concern, so naturally, I expected the two sides to sit down and compromise, as we so often do when we have honest differences. But that never happened.

No, Washington Democrats took this issue and exploited it to the last, running a two-week barrage of political ads all over the country implying that my Republican colleagues did not really care about our country’s children.

Meanwhile, those same Republicans were expressing their willingness to sit down and to compromise with Democrats, but each and every olive branch was pushed aside.

Political gamesmanship does not make for good government and sound policy. In fact, by the end of the Democrat attack campaign, the majority of the American people had come to agree with the Republican position, that we should first cover the kids who need it the most.

But now we are back at square one, and the SCHIP program is set to expire in less than one month’s time.

So it’s now time for the season for politics on this issue to come to an end. Just as we created this program a decade ago in bipartisan fashion, so too should we extend it based on common ground and a shared desire to do the right thing for our kids.

It’s not just Republicans who are ready to compromise. This week, one of our nation’s leading governors, Democrat Eliot Spitzer of New York, said he is open to a compromise on this issue because he understands its critical importance.

It is my sincere hope that Democrats in Washington will come to the same conclusion as Governor Spitzer did. As much as Democrats may wish to exploit this issue, the politics of fear will not deliver to the children of the working poor the quality, affordable care they need and deserve.

When I travel around my district, my constituents never hesitate to tell me how frustrated they are with the way things are going in Washington these days. According to the latest polling, Congressional approval today is at an all time low – just 11 percent of Americans approve of Congress’ job performance. When I look back at the last two weeks, it’s not hard to figure out why they feel that way.

We were sent here to get things done – to empower working families to deal with the challenges they face in their daily lives. It’s time we meet that obligation.

Thank you for listening.