States Using Obamacare Dollars to Fill Budget Holes Instead of to Fund Child Health Programs

In March 2010, while the details of Obamacare were still being hammered out, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Cali.) famously declared to a frustrated and bewildered American public, “But we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it away from the fog of the controversy.”

Congress did pass Obamacare, and citizens and states have steadily been finding out what’s actually in the legislation ever since.

One of the recent “finds” includes a provision that will shift to the federal government a significant amount of the financial burden previously placed on states for the funding of the Children’s Health Insurance Program.

CHIP, formerly called the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, was created as part of the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 to help states provide insurance for children in low-income households who are not eligible for Medicaid. According to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, an estimated 8.1 million children were enrolled in CHIP in fiscal year 2014.

To help offset the expected growing costs of Obamacare to the states, legislators included a provision in Obamacare that shifts all or nearly all of the CHIP burden to the federal government, beginning this year.Sarah Ferris reports in The Hill that under Obamacare, states will not pay more than 12 percent of CHIP expenses, and 11 states plus Washington, D.C. will not contribute anything. In previous years, federal contributions to CHIP amounted to 65–83 percent.

Shifting the CHIP burden to the federal government could free up as much as $6 billion for states over two years. Special-interest groups and advocacy organizations say the increased federal funding should only be used to improve CHIP, but instead of expanding or shoring up CHIP programs, many states are choosing to use those dollars to help fill budget holes completely unrelated to health care.

Via: The Blaze

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CBP: 135 Unaccompanied Children Caught At U.S. Border Per Day in July

(CNSNews.com) - About 135 unaccompanied children, on average, were caught illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border each day in July, according tothe latest data released by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

That is a monthly record for unaccompanied children (UC) apprehensions so far in Fiscal Year 2015.

According to the updated numbers, 30,862 unaccompanied minors have been apprehended at the border so far in FY 2015, which began on Oct. 1. The CBP’s latest numbers run through July 31.

CNSNews.com previously reported that 26,685 unaccompanied children had been apprehended as of June 30, as CBP data showed at the time. This means another 4,177 were caught during the month of July alone, making it the month with the highest number of UC apprehensions so far in FY 2015.

On Monday, Customs and Border Protection released a statement accompanying the release of its updated numbers, which were delayed by website glitches late last week. In the statement, CBP blamed the uptick of UC apprehensions on “poverty and violence” that “continue to worsen” in Central America, as well as smugglers who “often use misinformation about current immigration policies and practices” to convince people to cross into the United States illegally.

“In July, we experienced a slight increase over June in the number of unaccompanied children and family units apprehended,” CBP said.

“Conditions in Central America continue to worsen, especially the poverty and violence in these countries that are the primary push factors. We are aware that smugglers, or ‘coyotes,’ often use misinformation about current immigration policies and practices to lure illegal migrants to employ their services,” the statement continued.

Despite the increase in apprehensions in July, border apprehensions "remain at near historic lows," CBP added, promising to "continue to monitor the situation closely."

Via: CNS News

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Wisdom Abandoned: American Children Thrown to the Wolves

American society is badly damaged by a lack of virtue and the rejection of wisdom--Does not Wisdom Call Out? Does not Understanding Raise her Voice?

A society cannot hope to survive without some recognition and preservation of collective wisdom. It is part of each culture’s duty to the coming generation to collect wisdom. We must instruct upon the difference between success and failure, upon character and virtue, and the difference between good and evil.

And yet we live at a time when anything which smacks of tradition is dismissed out of hand. And simple, common sense values which at one time “went without saying” are treated like sewage—only fit for disposal. Now, even the most basic of contrasts, such as that between men and women are dismissed as an unsophisticated joke.

It’s undeniable that American society has turned its back upon the concept of wisdom, allowing its children to drift in society’s open oceans without restraint, like so much flotsam and jetsam. As US society is in the midst of a radial rewrite of the code of cultural mores, the truths of previous generations passed down through centuries are now treated as a laughingstock, a historical fiction, a nonsense of sexist, racist and homophobic myths.

So what is the antidote to the changes now being seen which will certainly destroy the entire society soon—if not challenged and halted? Wisdom! But recovering wisdom is easier said than done. The Old Testament writers personified Wisdom as a female in such books as the Proverbs of Solomon, celebrated as the wisest man of antiquity. King Solomon wrote in Proverbs 4:5-6,

Get wisdom, get understanding;
do not forget my words or turn away from them.
Do not forsake wisdom, and she will protect you;
love her, and she will watch over you.

Via: Canada Free Press

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[SPECIAL REPORT] Public Policy: For the Children

They care about them so much — until they don’t.

Although this article is not only about Syria, I will begin with Syria.

In his address to the Nation on Tuesday, September 10, concerning the August 21 chemical attack in Syria, President Obama singled out for special concern the hundreds of children who were killed, and invited his listeners to view the images. A few days later, on September 13, the Washington Post’s Philip Kennicott published an examination of this aspect of the President’s address in light of public opinion polls opposed to U.S. military action in Syria in a piece he entitled, “Why Syria’s Images of Sufferings Haven’t Moved Us.” Among other things, he wrote, “Images of children suffering form the ultimate emotional argument, compelling us to move from sentiment to action, from the particular to the universal, from passivity to engagement.” Undoubtedly, this is so. There are numerous examples, and not just examples from war zones. Recall the 18-month-old child who fell to the bottom of a 22-foot deep well: Jessica McClure in 1986, the subject of the 1989 TV movie,Everybody’s Baby.

In his address, the President belittled the prospects that a U.S. military attack would result in any extended air campaign or further intervention, or any retaliation by the Assad regime against the United States or Israel that the United States or Israel couldn’t handle. What he did not mention, and could not speculate on, was the degree of expected or unexpected “collateral damage.” We can assume there would be deaths of unarmed people, including children. Some of the children killed would be located near the targets. But there might well be more. It would be easy to envision that a regime that used chemical weapons would put children near targets to serve as human shields. Or use photos of dead children and allege that they were near the targets when killed or that they were killed when American weapons failed to hit their intended targets. What price, in the form of the blood of Syrian children, was President Obama willing to pay in order to deter the Syrian regime from engaging in, or to degrade the ability of the Syrian regime to engage in, chemical attacks that killed — Syrian children?

Via: American Spectator

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Dem Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee Says She Would Break The Law To Vote Against GOP Bill To Stop Obama From Gutting Welfare Work Requirements…

On Thursday, Texas Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee was so worked up about Republican legislation to stop the Obama administration’s welfare work requirement waivers that she exited an anti-bullying event early, joking that she would be breaking traffic laws to cast her vote in opposition.

“Please forgive me if I run out for a vote and a debate. I am going to run back. We’ll probably break all traffic rules, but I want you to be engaged. And I don’t want anybody hear about what traffic rule I’ve broken, but I want all of you to be engaged,” she urged the gathering of anti-bullying advocates and school children.

Lee left quickly in the middle of the event she headlined — “Bullying – Sticks & Stones: Changing the Face of the 21st Century” — to oppose to the Republican measure.

“My friends are now on the Hill. I’m going to have to run back, because the waiver that was given to give people flexibility on TANF [Temporary Assistance for Needy Families ] is now — that’s what we call giving flexibility in the national, making a statement of cooperation and working with government, state governments, meaning flexibility in the welfare concept, which I am so glad [the Obama administration] did,” she told the gathering. “So now my friends on the other side of the aisle, representing the 53 versus 47 percent — a little humor here, I’m going to get to the point, but in any event — they are trying to repeal the flexibility that our government so rightly so has given and sitting us in hearings saying that we over regulate.”

Despite a reputation for bullying her own staff, Lee has been championing anti-bullying legislation and pushing for more efforts to end bullying.

“Bullying prevention and intervention is not only about caring for our young people, it is about caring for our future, so bullying brings about bully-cide, suicide, cyber-bullying, and it does not end with our children on the playground,” she said. “It exists on college campuses, workplaces, online and even elderly care facilities.”

The Daily Caller revealed last year that in conjunction with her hot temper with staff, she has a reputation for ignoring traffic laws, with former drivers saying she would demand they run red lights and take highway shoulders to expedite travel times — something that has resulted in at least one accident.

Via: Daily Caller

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