Oct 7, 2017 2 min read

The latest instance of congressional dereliction of duty is its shameful failure to re-enact one of the most successful and well-supported, bipartisan initiatives, the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), which expired on Sept. 30, throwing health care for our most vulnerable young citizens into jeopardy nationwide.

The expiration of CHIP has been looming for years, but ours is a government which lurches form crisis to crisis. It is too difficult for our highly compensated ($174,000 per annum) and well-perked members of Congress to do their jobs efficiently. They spring into action only at the eleventh hour, if then.

Our Republican “leaders” are too busy to do the will of the people. They have been deeply embroiled in efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act, taking health care insurance away from millions of adults, and enacting tax cuts that will inordinately benefit the wealthy.

Will the president weigh in on CHIP and fight for its reauthorization? It is not likely. He is devoting precious time to publicly humiliating his secretary of state, cursing African-American football players and calling for their firing, engaging in name-calling of the leader of North Korea and provoking him into a nuclear war, and calling out the people of Puerto Rico and their leaders for being lazy, grasping ingrates who have the audacity to expect the government to help them when their island is left in ruins by a natural disaster.

We live in a nation which is commanded by the special interest, not the public interest. Children and their families must suffer.

Oren Spiegler

Upper St. Clair