SCHIP: Kay Granger Should Know Better
By Vince Leibowitz on Oct 12, 2007 in Texas Congressional Delegation ![[Post to Twitter]](/wp-content/plugins/tweet-this/icons/tt-twitter.png){kind=icon}
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If you look at the campaign website of Congresswoman Kay Granger (R-Fort Worth)–and the Vice Chair of the House Republican Conference–you can see that she pops off three things she considers very important near the top of her biography: she’s a former educator, a small business owner (an insurance agent, no less), and a mother.
Those three things make her vote on the SCHIP reauthorization and expansion even more reprehensible–because she should know better. And, the Service Employees International Union is pointing that out–with this ad currently running in Granger’s district:
To date, Kay Granger has been Texas’ Teflon Congresswoman. Nothing bad has ever managed to stick to Teflon Kay in a significant way, even though she’s using her position as a congresswoman to funnel federal funding to projects that benefit her family members.
She’s cast countless votes against the interest of her district and ordinary Texans across the state—prostituting herself as a Republican party shrew spouting her party’s talking points like an inebriated magpie in exchange for her continued climb up the leadership ladder, even to the point that she has been mentioned as a contender for a spot on a presidential ticket.
And, she has rarely–if ever–been called on the carpet for her voting record, which is decidedly out of touch with main stream Texas.
That time has past. Kay Granger is now being called out big time for her vote against reauthorizing and expanding the SCHIP program.
It’s a vote Teflon Kay should have known better than to cast. For one thing, she’s a mother. She should know how important healthy kids are. As a former educator, Granger should know that a healthy child is more easily able to function and learn in the educational system. And, as an insurance agent, Kay Granger should know damned good and well that low-income Texans can neither afford expensive private insurance nor the expensive costs of medical care for ill children without some type of program like SCHIP.
Evidently, Kay Granger has managed to set all of her life experiences–and common sense–aside. Because she decided that Republican Party talking points are more important than Texas children. She’s decided that her position as Republican Conference Vice Chair is more important than Texas children. She’s decided to tow her party’s line regardless of the consequences for Texas children.
It would be easy to say that Kay Granger is just a starry-eyed Republican idealist who just, deep down, doesn’t believe in any type of government program. But, that’s not the reality. In reality, Kay Granger isn’t an idealist. She’s a power-hungry, ladder-climbing Congresswoman from Fort Worth who is owned by the lobbyists from the drug companies, HMO’s, insurance companies, and lobbyists who have contributed thousands upon thousands of dollars to her campaign coffers.
She’s been simultaneously shrewing for the Republican Party and whoring for the health and insurance industry for years. Her voting record on health care issues is more spotty than a dalmation puppy: time and time again she has voted against the best interests of her constituents.
Granger’s district deserves better. That’s why it’s a good thing that the coalition including Americans United for Change is now calling out Granger for her anti-SCHIP vote.
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Getting into the “right” way of thinking, I’ve been proposing that we drop more people from their federally-funded healthcare. I’m thinking specifically of the 535 members of congress. I wrote to my rep, and asked him to follow the example of Steve Kagen, D-Wisc, who has declined his coverage untill all Americans have the same opportunity. I see that John Edwards has called on Congress to do the same.