These are not the budget cuts you're looking for

Oh, Martha, Martha, Martha!

State Rep. Martha Wong says in her first TV ad of the season that she helped expand health care to the poor, but the two-term lawmaker has cast several votes to cut such programs.

As the ad shows scenes of children, an announcer says that Wong "helped the truly needy gain access to government health care programs like Medicaid, Medicare and the Children's Health Insurance Program."

During her first term in 2003, the Houston Republican voted for a state budget that cut almost $1 billion from health programs. She also supported a major restructuring of the popular CHIP program that included new asset tests, increases in co-payments and premiums, and a requirement that families reapply every six months instead of once a year.

CHIP enrollment has dropped from its peak of 500,000 in 2003 to 300,000.

Only in a world where up is down could Wong credibly claim to have "helped the truly needy gain access to government health care programs like Medicaid, Medicare and the Children's Health Insurance Program." I say if you're going to vote for drastic, heartless budget cuts, the least you can do is stand up and be proud about it. Everyone who voted for those reductions at the time said they were necessary to balance the budget. Now it's time to see if the voters agree with that assessment.

In discussing her health care ads with the Houston Chronicle earlier this week, Wong said the 2003 budget cuts were necessary because of the poor economy at the time. Lawmakers decided to reduce the budget rather than raise taxes, she said, adding that she thinks the stricter enrollment measures eliminated fraud in CHIP.

And since then, we've had record surpluses, but the Republican-held State House has not restored any of those cuts to CHIP. But hey, at least those 200,000 fraudulent children got what was coming to them.

[Ellen] Cohen said that $200 million in CHIP cuts have cost Texas $1 billion in matching federal funds since 2003.

"The people getting shortchanged are the children, and the people getting hit harder are the taxpayers," said Cohen.

Texas continues to have the highest percentage of people without health insurance in the nation, according to recent U.S. census data.

Take a bow, Martha.

UPDATE: Here's Capitol Inside on the debate yesterday:

Sponsored by the Houston Intown Chamber of Commerce, the debate at the Briar Club sparked a war of words in its wake when Wong contended that Cohen had made a 180-degree turn on taxes with the criticism she leveled during the event at the new business tax that the Legislature adopted earlier this year. Cohen's camp countered by suggesting that Wong had lied when she portrayed herself as a friend of the Children's Health Insurance program during the debate and in a new television commercial.

Responding to Wong's assertion that she'd improved CHIP, Cohen's campaign pointed to eight votes that the incumbent cast as a House member on legislation dealing with funding for the state-subsidized health coverage for kids in working families that can't afford private insurance. The Democrat's camp also took issue with Wong for saying in the new TV spot that she'd worked as a lawmaker to help truly needed people gain access to CHIP, Medicaid and Medicare.

Cohen supporters argue that Wong is trying to have the best of both worlds by touting votes she cast in line with Republican House leaders before conservative audiences while advocating conflicting stances at other times that make her appear to have been more independent and moderate like the remaining swing votes that are still up for grabs in HD 134. Wong's camp says Cohen's criticism is coming from a first-time candidate who's attempting to distract from a lack of experience and inferior credentials.

Wong suggested that Cohen had reversed field on the new state business tax, noting that she described it during debate as "not a responsible decision" after telling a liberal blogger in June that it appeared to be the best that the Legislature could do under the gun of a court order on school finance. Wong's campaign said the conflicting positions on the business tax exemplified a Cohen penchant for "political pandering and flip-flops" during the initial debate.

That "liberal blogger" would be me. (Thanks for listening, Martha! Tell all your friends!) Here's the interview in question. Note that considering the new business tax to be not responsible but the best the Lege could have done under the circumstances is not at all contradictory. Voting to cut CHIP, which results in 200,000 children losing access to it, then claiming in a TV ad to have improved people's access to CHIP, now those are conflicting positions.

The HD 134 candidates are planning to face off again at two more debates in Houston in October. While Wong's supporters say the debates are a good opportunity for the incumbent to showcase her command on key issues and experience as a former city councilwoman and civic leader, Democrats speculate that the incumbent agreed to debate because she fears that she's behind in the race. As a general rule of thumb, frontrunners in political races are more apt to dodge debates than to participate in them.

Cohen campaign officials and other Democrats have heard that internal polling by Republican Governor Rick Perry shows Wong trailing the challenger by as much as six points. That hasn't been substantiated, however, because Perry's campaign as a matter of policy does not discuss the results of polls that it commissions.

Yeah, well, if polls showed Wong up by six, I'll bet there'd have been some official leakage about it. I'm just saying.

Posted by Charles Kuffner on September 21, 2006 to Election 2006 | TrackBack