It is very interesting that many of the Senate Republicans pushing the SCHIP legislation as it is written currently as the very same Republicans voting for AMNESTY for illegal aliens, whether through the Senate Bill or the recent Dream Act.

This is the list:
Along with Senators Hutchison and Corker, the letter was signed by Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA), the Ranking Member of the Senate Finance Committee, and Sens. Lamar Alexander (R-TN), Kit Bond (R-MO), Norm Coleman (R-MN), Susan Collins (R-ME), Pete Domenici (R-NM), Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Richard Lugar (R-IN), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Pat Roberts (R-KS), Gordon Smith (R-OR), Arlen Specter (R-PA), Olympia Snowe (R-ME), Ted Stevens (R-AK), John Sununu (R-NH) and John Warner (R-VA).

Should Tennesseans and American citizens be disappointed in the two Tennessee Senators, Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker? It is apparent that they either dismiss the fact that SCHIP allows access to insurance at our expense to illegal aliens or they simply do not care. In contacting Senator Lamar Alexander's Office this morning I was given the following information - there was an interview with Senator Alexander and Radio Talk Show Host Steve Gill in Tennessee in which SCHIP was discussed. I immediately accessed the website for Steve Gill and the following story came up on a couple of different sites.

Tennesseans, American taxpaying voters and those who are tired of the 11 % Congress telling us what legislation says, either intentionally lying or just suffering from ignorance due to not reading important sections and possible loopholes, are rightly leery of these pompous, arrogant Senators and Representatives ignoring us. When the large majority of Americans don't believe them and trust them in regards to the illegal immigration issue and their desire to eliminate magnets and benefits, it does not bode well of Senator Alexander to say there may be loopholes, but it benefits so many.

Steve Gill rightly outlines some of the loopholes and yet, in conversing with Senator Lamar Alexander and Senator Bob Corker staffers, one would be led to believe something entirely different about SCHIP and the ability for illegal aliens to access.

Hunter, with Senator Bob Corker's Office, pigeon holed my comments into there should be no further legislation until the illegal immigration issue was resolved. How naive and insulting not to recognize the outcries and anger from the American people on this issue. As explained to him, illegal immigration umbrellas everything. It impacts health care, education, taxes, social security, crime, benefits, quality of life in neighborhoods and cities, etc. and there is rampant fraud and a lack of will to curb and/or end this fraud and to end the theft of the American taxpayer dollars.

We are continually being insulted by these Senators, their staffers, and by the very votes of these Senator Sellouts. I asked Hunter if I would be correct in saying and posting on the internet that Senator Alexander and Senator Corker voted for illegal aliens to have access to health insurance when the really poor American children in certain areas would be ignored? Where are the safeguards, the real wording that said proof of citizenship required, etc. that would deny illegal aliens any further fleecing of our pockets? Hunter said there is no guarantee, no fool proof way to avoid fraud. While true, how about some effort, some language, some real action that says NO. How about addressing the obvious and blatantly apparent loopholes that Steve Gill highlights. There should be verification of citizenship and something required more than declaration of yes, I am a citizen as is the only requirement for so many things that illegal aliens are fraudulently attaining at our expense these days.

I read the key points of Steve Gill's argument on the SCHIP and yet the spin kept spinning. What do you do when you hold the information right up to their faces and they totally ignore the truth?

Why did some Senators vote against the bill who recognized the illegal alien access early on in the debate? Why is it that Tennessee Representatives Zach Wamp and Marsha Blackburn came out early to expose this fraud? Why is it that Senators tried to say that the Senate version did not allow for this? Why is it that when we the people called before the last SCHIP vote in the Senate to say illegal aliens would be covered under the legislation, the staffers said "Oh no, the bill does not provide insurance to illegal aliens?"

So again, Tennessee Senators may FINALLY be acknowledging that there may be loopholes, but they still insist on continued support of flawed legislation that demands nothing in regards to proof of citizenship. A loophole here in this bill, a loophole here in this bill, and the United States continues down the road to financial doom from millions of illegal alien lawbreakers taking, taking, taking and being given, given, given the rewards by Senators and Representatives.

I was asked do you not think that the Tennessee Senators have voted the way you would have wanted? Did they on SCHIP? The point is that allowing access to any benefit or service or privilege without the obvious requirement of citizenship does not help to appease Americans when they say but look how we voted over here. If it were not for the millions of Americans storming the phones and emailing and faxing and confronting in person our legislators, we have no doubt that many of the votes would have gone the other way on several bills.

Senator Lamar Alexander is up for re-election.

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CLEARING THE AIR ON SCHIP?

October 20, 2007 - October 27, 2007
Last week the U.S. House failed to override President Bush�s veto of legislation that would have reauthorized and expanded health insurance coverage under the SCHIP program by $35 billion over the next five years. The Senate had the votes to override the veto, but the Senate leadership opted to wait for the House to act before scheduling their own vote on the matter. Tennessee Senators Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker both voted for the legislation and would have voted to overturn the President�s veto had they been given the opportunity.

As new legislation is drafted to reauthorize and expand this important health insurance coverage program for poor children it will be more important than ever for Tennessee�s Senators to understand what the bill actually says BEFORE they cast their votes. They clearly failed to do that when they voted for the version of SCHIP that President Bush vetoed.

For example, both Senators have claimed that the version they supported would not have provided illegal aliens access to taxpayer funded health insurance. That is simply not true. Section 605 of the bill did indeed provide: �Nothing in this Act allows Federal payment for individuals who are not legal residents.� But, as is so often the case, the devil is in the details.

Section 211 of the bill dealt with verification of citizenship for purposes of determining eligibility for the program. Under the proposed law the applicants would only have been required to submit a name and social security number, which would then be verified with the Social Security Administration, to qualify for SCHIP coverage.

The current law requires states to determine whether persons applying for SCHIP are U.S. citizens. That requirement is satisfied by having applicants show specified types of identity documents, like drivers� licenses, passports or birth certificates, when they apply for these programs. But the bill supported by Corker and Alexander would have substantially weakened those requirements and made it easier for both legal and illegal aliens to break the law. None of that documentation would have been required under the law Tennessee�s Senators supported.

In fact, Michael Astrue, the Commissioner of the Social Security Administration, confirmed that the new SCHIP provisions would fail to identify and therefore would not prevent illegal aliens from fraudulently using another person�s valid name and Social Security number to get health coverage under SCHIP. Individuals who illegally overstayed a valid work permit would also not be detected under the weakened provisions of the law. Bottom line? Illegals were being provided with a huge loophole to gain access to SCHIP coverage.

There were a lot of landmines tucked away in the amnesty bill for illegals a few months ago. The same thing happened with the SCHIP bill. When dealing with the voluminous bills that come before Congress, Senators Alexander and Corker need to make sure they conduct fair, full and skeptical analysis rather than simply relying upon the Cliffnote versions provided by advocates of the legislation. At the very least they should rigorously follow Ronald Reagan�s advice to �trust, but verify.�

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http://www.gillreport.com/wk-53

SENATOR LAMAR ALEXANDER TELLS HIS VERSION HERE:

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The bill passed by the House and Senate also helps keep Tennessee hospitals afloat by providing a permanent annual Medicaid Disproportionate Share Hospital (DSH) allotment for Tennessee of $30 million per year – the first permanent fix for Tennessee ever approved by Congress. DSH payments help compensate hospitals that treat large numbers of Medicaid and uninsured payments, and until this agreement was secured by Senator Corker and myself Tennessee and Hawaii were the only two states that did not have permanent DSH allotments.

Some misinformation about the SCHIP bill has made its way into press coverage. Just to be clear, the final version of this legislation:

Does not expand access to include illegal immigrants. It explicitly prohibits illegal immigrants from receiving Medicaid and SCHIP benefits. It requires, for the first time, an established process for states to verify citizenship of SCHIP enrollees.

Does not raise the income levels required for a child to be eligible for SCHIP benefits to incomes of up to $83,000. Those income levels, as before, will be determined by states in consultation with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

Does not raise the age of a “childâ€