House Republicans on Monday blamed Democrats for the faltering negotiations to fund the Children’s Health Insurance Program.
Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., said Democrats haven’t given a “single counter-offer” in the bipartisan negotiations that resumed nearly two weeks ago. The statement Monday came after top Democrats on the House Energy & Commerce Committee accused Republicans of refusing to fund the program while they attack Obamacare and Medicare.
The committee passed a five-year reauthorization a few weeks ago, but Walden, the committee chairman, hasn’t sent it to the House floor. Walden decided to restart bipartisan talks on how to fund the CHIP program after the bill passed the committee by a party-line vote. CHIP is traditionally a bipartisan bill.
Democrats are upset that Republicans sought to pay for CHIP and a two-year reauthorization of community health centers by raiding an Obamacare disease prevention fund. They are also upset at charging higher Medicare premiums to seniors that earn more than $500,000, since they see it as a backdoor to bigger Medicare cuts down the road, and also don’t like the GOP plan to shorten the grace period for Obamacare customers to pay premiums before insurance cuts off.
The top Democrat on the committee, Rep. Frank Pallone of New Jersey, said last week that Republicans are not budging on either of those items in the talks.
But Walden sought to put blame on Democrats. Since the talks were resumed on Oct. 5, Republicans haven’t gotten a counter-offer, he said.
“Instead, they are adamantly protecting subsidies for the wealthiest one percent of Medicare beneficiaries, those making more than $40,000 per month, instead of funding health insurance for low-income children,” Walden said.
Walden set a deadline to get talks finished up by last Friday or he would just send the bill that passed the committee to the House floor. He did not say in his statement if he is sending the bill and shutting down the talks.
The House is out this week and returns on Oct. 23.
Meanwhile, the Senate Finance Committee passed its own version of CHIP reauthorization but without any funding offsets. The committee leadership is in talks on funding offsets but no decision has been made yet.
