...but that would have been too much like right...

The Missouri Senate has voted down a proposal to expand the Children’s Health Insurance Program. The House and the Senate can’t agree on how to use federal stimulus funds…and the Senate decided to clarify that the majority of its members don’t think those funds should go towards providing healthcare coverage to Missouri children.

It is important to note that the layoffs that make news are also layoffs that force families to make hard financial decisions about healthcare...like “is that a cough or an infection?” or “do we need this prescription or will things clear up on their own?” or “groceries, utilities or Timmy’s asthma treatment?”

One of the elements of the federal stimulus plan that this bitch liked was that it funneled money to states that are sure to have funding gaps so that those states could continue crucial programs that are more needed than ever given the ramifications of fubar economics.

But the majority in control of Missouri’s House and Senate have decided to play politics…to basically guarantee the failure of the stimulus plan by refusing funds, cutting programs and forcing families to shut down instead of move forward.

Expanding S-CHIP would extend healthcare coverage to the children of the newly unemployed.

Expanding S-CHIP would mean that a child with asthma would get proactive treatment instead of an emergency room visit…and save all of us money in the end.

Expanding S-CHIP should have been a no-brainer.

But expanding S-CHIP was just too much like right.

I guess this is one way for legislators to support those traditional values they are always talking about…if by tradition they mean their history of callous disregard and willful neglect.

May decency prevail when this bill is discussed in the House-Senate conference committee…

…because it sure as shit was a no-show when the Senate took this vote.

Its Thursday April 16th, y'all.

Do you know where your state's stimulus funds are?

Blink.