Yesterday, the Democratic-led Congress may have helped Governor Blagojevich's defense when they voted to expand federal health care to include another 4.1 uninsured children -- a program into which families making up to $80,000 a year will be allowed to participate.
Sound familiar? Actually, what Nancy Pelosi and the U.S. House Democrats did was ratchet up the federal coverage to match Governor Blagojevich's Family Care program, the same state program he's being impeached for setting into motion without the General Assembly's approval; the same Family Care program for which J-CAR refused to write administrative rules.
So, perhaps we can expect Governor Obstinate to thank his former U.S. Congress colleagues for coming to his aid by providing a defense and making his efforts to expand universal health care now look visionary and daringly cutting edge.
He could almost say he knew all along this would happen. Now, as soon as the measure passes the U.S. Senate and is signed into law by an eager Barack Obama, Illinois' uninsured families will be the first to take advantage of this program because he's already set up the application process and started gathering names and premiums, and the state will be the first at the federal trough to tap into this new $35 billion program to begin paying unpaid Medicaid bills.
Most of all, the Speaker Pelosi unwittingly may be pulling the baddest rug (other than Fitzgerald's yet-to-be-filed-indictments) out from under the House's impeachment accusations. If SCHIP expands as expected, those on J-CAR who stopped the state's rule-making process will be the ones with egg on their faces.
