Cornyn Abandons Family Values (Again)

John Cornyn, to the surprise of no one here, opposes affordable health care for poor children. What he describes as a back door to nationalized health care is, in actuality, funding to make sure that our children have reasonable access to doctors. SCHIP is nowhere near nationalized medicine. It would ensure basic health coverage for poor children. Moreover, children could simply go to a doctor when they were sick, rather than being taken to an emergency room as a last resort. In short, SCHIP saves money. SCHIP takes the burden off of the emergency rooms of county hospitals who are more expensive providers than doctor's offices and, frankly, have better things to spend their limited resources on than caring for a child with a bad cold.

What John Cornyn doesn’t like isn’t nationalized health care, it’s the very idea that his tax dollars or the tax dollars of his wealthy conservative friends would be taken and used for anything as trivial as needy children. It irks him and his Republican buddies that anyone who prove themselves so unfit as to find themselves poor would be given money from out of his pocket.

I have news for John Cornyn and for his friends: This is how civilized society works. If society were truly as “every man for himself” as you believe, this nation would be in some deep trouble. Not treating sick children is not just morally unconscionable, it’s unwise. Sick people cough on other healthy people. Sick children who aren’t taken care of get sicker. They eventually have to be treated by overburdened hospitals who, thankfully, aren’t allowed to simply turn them away. They cost the taxpayers thousands instead of hundreds. They don’t grow up to be workers in the industries that you and your friends use the services of. In short, it makes good, conservative economic sense to spend a little now, than to spend a lot more later.

What I do find comforting is that more people are seeing the reason in caring for sick people. As more people confront skyrocketing medical bills, they are seeing that the only choice that makes sense is to make sure that everyone has at least some access to doctors.

Senator Cornyn, more and more of your party is seeing the light. More and more of the most fervent Republicans are realizing that full health coverage, at least for our children, makes sense — even if more of the money comes from the rich than it does from the poor. Isn’t it time you saw the light and made the only compassionate, intelligent, economically realistic choice, too?