Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) was furious with the Republican party for their decision to gut funding for healthcare for 9 million children.
The U.S. Congress hasn't funded the Children’s Health Insurance Program, which has put several states in a scramble for money to help ensure children are covered. In an interview with SirusXM radio host Dean Obeidallah, Gallego railed against the GOP for a heartless decision all the while the party worked to pass legislation that would give a monstrous tax cut to the wealthy.
It shows “you really how soulless and vacuous the Republican party is," Gallego said. "They are so quick to the put together these votes for the rich but they can’t find one friggin’ minute for nine million kids who are about to lose coverage."
Gallego noted that Republicans are more than willing to "bend over backwards to make sure that some corporation can have a bigger return for shareholders," however, when it comes to children, they're ready for a holiday recess.
"There are places now in Alabama and Colorado, for example, where the state government is sending out notices to parents saying that that their children will now longer be covered because the federal government has not found time to reauthorize and re-fund CHIP," he revealed.
Senate Finance Committee Chair Orrin Hatch (R-UT), who helped author the GOP's tax bill, admitted the country is out of money now that they've added $1.7 trillion to the deficit with their tax cut.
“The reason CHIP is having trouble [passing] is because we don’t have money anymore,” Hatch admitted on the floor. “We just add more and more spending and more and more spending, and you can look at the rest of the bill for the more and more spending.”
Listen to the full commentary from Gallego below:
