The White House/Administration/Trump seem to be careening forward on their well-traveled and immoral course.

Their latest outrage is an attempt to cut the Children’s Health Insurance Program, which was renewed for a six-year period earlier this year.

 

Known more widely as CHIP, this program provides health coverage to nearly 9 million children in low-income families in all 50 states.

 

It is widely recognized as successful. It turns out that, just as predicted, children’s health improves with access to medical care.

 

In addition to its medical and policy successes, CHIP also saves the country money by reducing expenditures on other health care programs, particularly Medicaid. CHIP does this because it leads to better medical outcomes by treating children earlier and in a doctor’s office as opposed to later and in an emergency room.

 

Nonetheless, it has come under threat of the knife, but not due to any shortcoming on its part.

 

Instead, it is on the chopping block to the tune of a $7 billion reduction because of the ballooning budget deficit.

 

It matters not to the White House that the deficit increase results primarily from its ill-advised 2017 corporate tax cuts. Those will remain as is, although there are rumors of some wanting additional reductions.

 

One might wonder why children should go without medical care while the country injects more cash into already-profitable companies, but that is just the way the United States rolls today.

 

One does hope that our white evangelical brothers and sisters (Where are you Franklin? Jerry, Jr? Rev. Jeffrees? Mr. Perkins?) will use their new-found political muscle to prevent this reduction.

 

Unfortunately, their political agenda may be too crowded with issues other than the just treatment of children.