Uncovered: Toomey Video Railing against Health Insurance for Children

Calls SCHIP a “Big-Government Bonanza”

MEDIA, Pa. – Recently uncovered shocking video and outrageous statements about children’s health care highlight how out of touch Congressman Toomey’s positions are with Pennsylvania.  A 2007 video from Fox News shows Toomey railing against a program to provide health care to uninsured children. He later targeted members of his own party with vicious attack ads for voting for what he called a “big-government bonanza.” Congressman Toomey’s Club for Growth called SCHIP “the embodiment of bloated, big government spending,” and lobbied for its defeat.

“Even though he’s made a career fighting for Wall Street at the expense of the middle class, it’s still shocking that Congressman Toomey would side against millions of uninsured children,” said Sestak spokesman Jonathon Dworkin. “Rather than help protect our most vulnerable, Toomey attacked members of his own party for doing the right thing. It’s the latest extreme stance that shows just how out of touch Congressman Toomey is with ordinary Pennsylvanians.”

On Fox News, Congressman Toomey targeted 45 of his fellow Republicans for voting to reauthorize the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), which provides health care coverage to approximately 7 million low-income children every year.  [Fox News, 9/26/07; Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, CHIP Ever Enrolled Year Graph, FY2009]

Ahead of the September 2007 vote to reauthorize SCHIP, the Club for Growth, which Congressman Toomey led at the time, issued a statement urging “Members of Congress to vote ‘NO’ on the reauthorization of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program…This proposal, which uses tax hikes to expand the welfare state, is the embodiment of bloated, big government spending.” [Club for Growth Key Vote Alert, 9/24/2007]

Congressman Toomey’s Club for Growth later ran attack ads against Republicans that stood with Democrats to vote for the SCHIP reauthorization. In a statement, Congressman Toomey called health care coverage for low-income children a “big-government bonanza.” [ClubforGrowth.net, 5/9/08]

Created in 1997, the federal SCHIP program was modeled after Pennsylvania’s Children’s Health Insurance Program.  In September 2010, more than 190,000 Pennsylvania children were enrolled in the Pennsylvania program. [Pennsylvania’s Children’s Health Insurance Program, accessed on 10/17/10]