I agree S-chip should be expanded but they should investigate better who they give it to. This is a perfect example of how people cheat the system. And Democrats want to socialize health care if we cant do it for children how are we going to do everyone else.

did you even bother to read ANY of the above?

Nice duplicitous lead. Why is the story not the republican smear campaign?

This is a lot closer to the truth:

The right-wing immediately condemned Democrats for daring to put a human face on the SCHIP program at a time when Bush was proposing a “diminishment of the number of children covered.” Rep. John Boehner (R-OH) — who has posed with children to advance his own political agenda — claimed Graeme was being used “as a human shield.”

Conservatives have more recently turned their targets on young Graeme Frost himself. ...

The smear attack against Graeme has taken firm hold in the right-wing blogosphere. The National Review, Michelle Malkin, Wizbang, Powerline, and the Weekly Standard blog have all launched assaults on the Frost family. The story is slowly working its way into traditional media outlets as well.

Here are the facts that the right-wing hasn’t bothered to figure out before attacking young Graeme:

1) Graeme has a scholarship to a private school. The school costs $15K a year, but the family only pays $500 a year.

2) His sister Gemma attends another private school to help her with the brain injuries that occurred do to her accident. The school costs $23,000 a year, but the state pays the entire cost.

3) They bought their “lavish house” sixteen years ago for $55,000 at a time when the neighborhood was less than safe.

4) Last year, the Frost’s made $45,000 combined. Over the past few years they have made no more than $50,000 combined.

5) The state of Maryland has found them eligible to participate in the CHIP program.

Desperate to defend Bush’s decision to cut off millions of children from health care, the right wing has stooped to launching baseless and uninformed attacks against a 12 year old child and his family.

Right wing bloggers have been harassing the Frosts, calling their home numerous times to get information about their private lives. Compassionate conservatism indeed.

Question - why did bush re-open Pandora’s Box? Answer; to let out more wing nuts.
This attack on children is unbelievable!
Thank goodness, there is a God; otherwise, these people would destroy what is left of human decency!

This is a NEW LOW for the toe tapping, morally bankrupt republicans!

go ahead and expand it.
let the 50 million or so people who vote democrat every year pay $150-200 each and they can pay for it all they want to.
or is it cause libs are to cheap with their own money and only like spending other peoples money?

The family qualified for aid under the law. If your child is hurt and you need help, and you qualify for some kind of assistance, you take it. It's that simple.

That's the end of the story.

The real story that's emerging now is that a 12-year-old child and his family are being attacked and harassed for speaking out on an issue of public policy.

If you really want to evaluate the utility and effectiveness of the CHIP program, you would examine the statistics gathered by the agencies that administer the program. If that was really your intent, you wouldn't pick a single family that had taken a public stance on the issue and form conclusions based solely on that family's circumstances.

You would do that, however, if you wanted to create a chilling atmosphere for dissent.

Why is the right-wing harassing a 12-year-old and his family?

I have mixed feelings about this one.

On the one hand, it's just disgusting that the Republican Party would stomp all over these people. What on earth would make them want to smear a kid like that? Graeme Frost isn't the sick one here, it's the Republican Party that's the sick one.

On the other hand, maybe it's a good thing when they let the mask slip from time to time, so everyone can see how hateful and selfish they really are.

We can dump pallets of money on Iraq, no questions asked, and argue about healthcare to kids? That's mighty Christian.

Didn't Jesus say, 'whatsoever you do the least of my brothers...'

The sickness that is modern conservatism turns my stomach

Bush and republicans can tell any d.... lie they wish, but you can not tell the truth about them if it hurts their agenda. Even our democrats (republicans) in office will support them.
You have to remember that Bush's supreme court voted that a person could lie about another's record or their own or anything they wish and it is a form of FREE SPEECH, but I wonder what will happen when it is someone like MoveOn.....
Look at the way they smeared MoveOn about their true statement and now Pelaeus is at the front using propaganda for Cheney & Bush's war in Iraq.
Petraeus says to prove him wrong in what he says about Iran revolutionary guards being involved in supplying Iraq with arms, when he even says he has no prove they they are. Everything he states about Iran is not facts but is HERE SAY.

"It appears that some folks feel that some victims should never be questioned, no matter their veracity."

Dude: The whole point is that this family's story is TRUE, yet wingnuts like Michelle Malkin still feel no qualms about harassing a 12-year-old boy and his family anyway. Go ahead and ask questions, but don't turn the whole thing into an ugly hatefest when you don't get the answers you want. I'd be so embarrassed to be a conservative these days! But then, I actually have a conscience.

And as for "trotting kids out to make political points," I seem to remember a fancy ceremony at the White House not too long ago featuring dozens of "snowflake babies."

"go ahead and expand it.
let the 50 million or so people who vote democrat every year pay $150-200 each and they can pay for it all they want to.
or is it cause libs are to cheap with their own money and only like spending other peoples money?"

These numbers are magical!

Have you ever considered the deleterious secondary effects that an uninsured populace has on a country? No you haven't because you're too busy parroting whatever radio talk show talking points memo you go in your inbox this morning.

You know why it won't cost everybody "150-200" dollars? Because unlike private insurance companies, public health insurance doesn't inflate their overhead costs. It's called a company based on the public interest NOT in the interest of filling the coffers of a bunch of executive MBAs who care more about their Cayman Islands accounts than the general well-being of the American people.

You wanna know how we can pay for S-CHIP? How about we start making the disgusting CEOs who last year successfully managed to hide an estimated $75 BILLION dollars in offshore accounts and tax shelters pay their share like they're supposed to. But no, instead we have to spend our days deliberating whether or not it's fair to harass a 12 year old boy and his family in a public smear campaign that is run by amateurs who are more interested in their argument than in the truth.

"GOP aides were complicit in spreading disparaging information about Frosts"?

Those same aides who are covered by the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program - whose premiums those aides pay out of the salaries the taxpayers provide?

And then they still got their facts wrong. Unintentionaly, or not.

Sweet. Hypocrisy rocks, doesn't it?

Have any of these right wingers priced an individual policy?

I am involved in my employer's purchase of group coverage. Family coverage is $1,000 per month and it is definitely not a "gold plated" plan. An individual policy would be substantially more. This, of course, assumes no pre-existing conditions and the usual private insurance caveats.

It is really pathetic to attack the messenger. This kid and his family are facing these bloggers who will do anything to stop anything they see as socialized medicine. This is an outrage! Maybe it is time that the people start investigating the rightwing bloggers. I am sure there are other Jeff Galooley types in there who have something to hide. Time to bring them down a peg or two. I am sure once someone actually starts calling their homes and harrasing them they might then know a taste of how it feels.

Huh. I wonder how the wingnuts would have responded if his sister had a feeding tube and was brain dead?

Silly wingers.

I think the boys' family should sue and file police complaints for harassment.

I can't believe how unbelievably ugly GOoPers are just under their flag decals and lapel pins.

"But Manley say conservative bloggers didn't dig deep enough. It turns out that the Frost children attend...on near-full scholarships..."

I got a chuckle out of that, seeing as how it suggests conservative bloggers even CARE what the truth is, and that they would stick to truths when presenting their arguments. Although not related to S-CHIP, the best example of this might be CNN correspondent Michael Ware's "outrageous heckling" of John McCain in Baghdad last April 1st. (Conservatives hate Ware because he won't regurgitate the White House line on Iraq as Fox News does.) Conservative bloggers, led by the Drudge Report, were universally outraged by Ware's supposed transgression. Only one problem: The videotape later released shows Ware DIDN'T UTTER A WORD DURING THE PRESS CONFERENCE, JUST AS HE SAID HE DIDN'T. And yet Drudge has yet to retract the lies he printed that day. Anyone who thinks conservative bloggers would have halted their attacks on the Frosts if they "had all the facts" is exceptionally naive. Just ask the Swift Boat Liars for Lies -- they'll happily confirm this.

One of the big details that dogmatic, simplistic right-wingers conveniently forget, ignore, or are too stupid to notice, is that many people do indeed purchase health insurance for themselves and their dependents, paying exorbitant premiums for decades....And they're still financially broken if they go to the doctor for a serious illness, much less overpriced prescriptions.

Public health insurance isn't about 'socialism,' or 'taking your money,' it's about bulk-purchase rates, economies of scale, reducing grotesquely fraudulent billings, and eliminating multiple layers of useless middleman gougers in the health care business.

That's just sound economics, not socialism.

"...or is it cause libs are to cheap with their own money and only like spending other peoples money?"

We're not actually, but you Republicans sure are.

Year after year, us bluestaters pay more in taxes than we get back, while you redstaters feed off the treasury.

Here in California, I get about 70 cents for every dollar that I send to the federal treasury. Likewise, Connecticut, Maryland (where the Frost family lives), New Jersey, Mass, NY, etcetera.

For once we'd (liberal Democrats to liberal Republicans) like to spend our money as we see fit, not to support the idiot rednecks. Our kids will turn to SCHIP.

If Think Progress can debunk the Free Republic talking points, why is ABC so helpless?

This is false balance, presenting the Republican side of the story-- lies, smears, and innuendo-- while not presenting the other side of the story, namely the truth.

Quoting ThinkProgress (to reprise David Lelsz above):

1) Graeme has a scholarship to a private school. The school costs $15K a year, but the family only pays $500 a year.

2) His sister Gemma attends another private school to help her with the brain injuries that occurred due to her accident. The school costs $23,000 a year, but the state pays the entire cost.

3) They bought their “lavish house” sixteen years ago for $55,000 at a time when the neighborhood was less than safe.

4) Last year, the Frost’s made $45,000 combined. Over the past few years they have made no more than $50,000 combined.

5) The state of Maryland has found them eligible to participate in the CHIP program.

Charles, that's an excellent question. I think the answer is that ABC News is a government tool. The story on their evening news ought to be that the Republican Party is trying to crucify a 12-year-old kid and his struggling parents, but you can bet that ABC News will parrot the right-winger line. Either that, or they'll just bury it and give us another update about O.J. Simpson.

The Dixie Chicks.
Undercover CIA officer Valerie Plame Wilson.
The 9-11 Widows.
And now a 12 year old kid recovering from a car accident.
Republicans are lowlife scumbags. Not just any women and children either, but good, honest all-American women and children.

The Demos want to use children as political pawns to further their agenda, but then cry fowl because people DARE to ask questions and point out a few facts behind this so called poor family who have made a PERSONAL CHOICE NOT to buy their own heath insurance and let the TAXPAYER subsidize their life style by providing it for them…….. THIS family CHOOSE to get into this POLITICAL fight, they are NOT exempt from public scrutiny…

Thank you, Charles. Maybe the worst part of this story is that ABC has uncritically cut-and-pasted falsehoods from those abusive right-wingers. So now the truth is a victim along with the family. The news is supposed to clarify facts, not cover them up and worsen the situation.

Here's how it works:

-- Blogger makes ridiculous "estimates" of the family's income, wealth, and expenses that based on that most impeccable source, Google.
-- ABC reports there is a "firestorm." Readers think: where there's smoke, there's fire. Must be something wrong.
-- Instead of reporting facts that have been checked in order to clarify the real story, ABC REPEATS the falsehoods pulled out of the heinie of some right-wing stalker.
-- Readers think there is a real controversy. Right-wingers get rewarded for their morally disgusting, abusive, possibly criminal harassment of this family.
-- Since it works so well, they will do it again. All while attacking the "liberal press" for not "digging into the story." ABC doesn't seem to mind playing the bad guy in this scenario.

I think this is more disgusting than even the Terry Schiavo disaster or the Clinton impeachment. This is a smaller incident, but the targets are children, a scholarship kid and a kid still recovering from her accident.

However, even more disgusting is the fact that ABC and its colleagues could refuse to amplify this hateful stuff. All it would require would be to report facts objectively -- no liberal bias needed.

I can't find words to say how angry that makes me.

"Cry fowl" -- I guess I needed a laugh, and you gave me one, FidoNY. It's an honor to share a thread with the original dog from that New Yorker cartoon. But, you know, if you chose a different screen name, nobody WOULD know you're a dog.

I can't help thinking the literacy gap between right-wing and liberal/centrist commenters here means something. But I shouldn't judge; it's hard to type with paws.

This family qualified for the program. That has never been at question.

for the vile poster who said "Then I'd do everything possible to destroy their lives with that info.... Then maybe the bunch of socialist patsies will think twice."

It's obvious what you want to punish this family for. Not for benefiting from programs they qualify for.

You want to destroy their lives because they dared to speak up.

The hatred you display is sickening.

I didn't mean you, Magic Dog. You are clearly having no trouble typing wonderfully with your magic paws.

To the poster who said "this so called poor family who have made a PERSONAL CHOICE NOT to buy their own heath insurance and let the TAXPAYER subsidize their life style by providing it for them……"

This family qualified for the benefit. What federal benefits do you qualify for? Did you make a personal choice to use those benefits? Do you take advantage of the mortgage interest deduction? Do you get Social Security benefits? Do you have an FHA mortgage? Do you have a Small Business loan? Do federal subsidies benefit your kids' schools, the industry in which you work, or the community you live in?

Have you made a personal choice to do without those benefits - to which you are entitled?

Why are the Democrats only charging Smokers???

Shouldn't they make EVERYBODY Pay, if they want to steal money to give away.

Plenty of Non-smokers have kids too!

Will they start running ads to encourage people to smoke more... "For the Children"???

Who is the worst Democratic political leader, Pelosi or Reid? Why do they keep giving ammunition to Bush`s Republican Guard? We really do need anothe party.

"The Demos want to use children as political pawns to further their agenda, but then cry fowl because people DARE to ask questions and point out a few facts behind this so called poor family who have made a PERSONAL CHOICE NOT to buy their own heath insurance and let the TAXPAYER subsidize their life style by providing it for them…….. THIS family CHOOSE to get into this POLITICAL fight, they are NOT exempt from public scrutiny…"

Posted by: FidoNY | Oct 8, 2007 11:16:01 PM

As the Traitor-In-Chief likes to say, "Bring It On!", you dug and found nothing. Well... you found something to try and spin, but you've been found out...once again.

If our tax dollars can go to helping a couple of American kids recover from a terrible accident, I'm all for it. Better to be used there than paying another murdering contractor in Iraq.

Pffft Fido... so much for the "Pro-Life" crowd....

Here's an idea if you want to tax smokers...

$1.00 a pack towards a fund to provide lung cancer treatment.

I could get behind that!

Seeing this debate from Canada, it feels like the I'm watching the theatre of the absurd. Its bizarre in itself that there should be any debate over whether an advanced western society should care for its kids.
Here in Canada, we've had a universal, single payer Medicare system for 40 years. Canada was among the last countries in the western world to adopt such a public system.
Today, even the right wingers swear their fealty to Medicare, and they would never even dream of running in an election campaign on a platform of privatizing health care and handing health insurance back to the private health insurance industry.
In Canada, that would be political suicide. It's truly amazing that Americans still don't get it, and it doesn't seem likely that you will in the foreseeable future.

People fear that which they do not know. Amazing how many slam socialism, without knowing anything but what Hannity has told them. If only we had as constant a drumbeat of critique about the real evil - capitalism!

Freeloaders are always using their children as an excuse for not earning their way in life..... You pay for my health care while a use my money to renovate my kitchen.... With the major housing boom we’ve been going thru the past few years I would say old Halsey Frost is either lazy, a very bad carpenter, or is doing a lot of under the table “CASH” work he isn’t reporting...... maybe the IRS needs to take a look at him….

I certainly hope that ABC News will not follow Conservative bloggers down the path of ignoring the truth about the Frost family.

This is nothing but an attempted payback for daring to speak out against the President.

Will ABC go down that road?

I'm old enough to have seen a lot of things, but I didn't think I'd see the day when a national news organization would dump on a 12-year-old kid's father and mother because they couldn't afford to spend half their meager take-home pay for health insurance.

Magic Dog,

Good question.

you must have slept through math class. With 2 kids and making about $50,000 a year, I am reasonably sure that it is impossible to purchase private health care (at upwards of $1,000 a month). Oh, but you say, then the husband or wife should have taken a "regular" job so that they could get health insurance that way! Only 2 problems with that--once the accident happened, now we have our lovely "pre-existing condition" situation (meaning no insurers would touch them). What's that you say? Should have gotten that "regular" job BEFORE the accident? Tsk tsk. Yep--that's what conservatives would like every single American citizen to do, isn't it (except for the already mega-rich): be indentured slaves to the aforementioned mega-rich. No more small business owners. No more being your own boss. No more American dream. Pretty sad.

Now try doing a real news story. First, lets find out what kind of insurance this family could have afforded. Yes, I can probably buy a cheap policy with high cost sharing but that would not have kept me out of bankruptcy in these circumstances.

Second, what were the medical costs for this accident? How much would the family have to foot under a low, medium and high option? What would their future insurability have been given the continuing medical problems from the accident?

Third, what would the family really have available to cover the expenses out of pocket or after various insurance alternatives?

This kind of investigation would have given a real assessment of the story. Repeating the arguments just leads to speculation and not news.

Republicons will attack anyone and everyone... even their own.. even children. They love lots of zeros, like the mumbling bush.

I have been insured for my entire life, meaning that I have never faced a pre-existing condition exclusion.

Five years ago I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. I am disabled from it, and am on Medicare. When you're on Medicare, you need to pay for extras. There is Part B, which costs $95 a month. There is Part D, the insanely complicated "prescription drug benefit," which in practical reality is a benefit for no one but the drug companies.

I live in Washington State, and because high-cost people like me are put into a "risk pool," I was paying 110% of the highest-cost insurance plan in the state. This costs me about $430 a month, plus the $95 for Part B. So, for $525 a month I have been getting my health care and my drugs.

By the way, my drug consists of what a chemist friend told me was $60 worth of Interferon. The drug company charges nearly $1,000 a month. Part D rule actually forbid the federal government from negotiating the price downward.

A month ago, I got a letter from the risk pool telling me that I have to go into Part D, and that I have to go into a private "Medicare Advantage" plan. I did my homework (hard to do, because the MS makes it hard to figure things out) and it looks like my insurance will go up to $800 or $900 a month including what I'll have to pay in copays. What cost a little over $6,000 a year is going to cost about $10,000 a year.

Then I read last weekend that a bunch of the Medicare Advantage plans are in scandal because they've screwed people out of their drugs. I don't know which one to pick. The drug plans have this formula where they pay 25% for a while, then nothing for a while, then 95% for a while, and different deductibles for different drugs.

My elderly mother told me that people in her nursing home were in tears when they couldn't figure it out, even with a lot of help. I could believe it, because I want to cry when I try to figure it out. I've spent my whole life being responsible and in control and now they throw this at me. It is really frustrating and really scary.

So now we've got the Republican Party pulling a 12-year-old kid through the mud, and his parents who don't have any money to speak of but who love their kids and want to do right. Anyone who says anything can be assassinated, and then there's ABC News standing ready to help the assassins.

And someone at ABC News will be there to help the Republican Party blame it on the people it happens to. I'd like to tell you to be ashamed of yourselves but you have no shame.

Oh, one more thing. I told the long story about my insurance premiums not to have been be sympathetic with me, but to make the point that for one, single guy who's always paid his insurance and therefore can't be redlined out for a pre-existing condition, the premium and the copays are going to be $10,000 a year.

So when the 12-year-old's parents tell you their insurance was going to be $1,200 a month you can believe that. The cost of insurance is out of sight, and it's getting worse every year. The health care system is just out of control, but the right-wingers at ABC News couldn't possibly care less. They'd rather help the Republican Party attack a 12-year-old child and his parents.

There are barely words for you people.

IF IT'S UNBORN CONSERVATIVES LOVE IT! THOUGH ONCE IT'S BORN IT'S ON IT'S OWN.......A LOT LIKE BABY DINOSAURS.
"If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, THE TRUTH IS THE GREATEST ENEMY OF THE STATE." -- Joseph Goebbels, German Minister of Propaganda, 1933-1945
"The mind of a bigot is like the pupil of an eye: the more light you pour on it, the more it contracts."
Chief Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, U.S. Supreme Court
"When facism comes to America it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.” -Sinclair Lewis

RIGHT - YOU can USE a 12 yr old to PICK A FIGHT... but how dare we swing back. It's all about the KID... that’s exactly the line the Demo Leaders want to push... NO... this is ALL about greedy PARENTS who make enough money to purchase their own health insurance wanting Taxpayer handouts..... The parents choose to let their 12 yr old child be USED by Harry Reid for a Political Fight, to get the sympathy vote.... Was this child abuse??? hummmmmmm…Was this a free donation to the Democratic party or did they pay the kid to read this speech; who prepared it; Reid or the kid; any labor laws violated here…It’s EASY to BASH people by USING a kid as your battle cry…, shows you how low the Demo’s will gooo.. If this passes.... I'm going to get rid of my private insurance and get the free Government plan.... It's one way to get some of my tax dollars back into my pocket....

Look at the outrage toward the right wing here. If another right wing con artist gets elected (you know the guys who believe that the rich should inherit the earth, and screw everyone and everything else) - look for fraud again.

"Atlas Spanked": excellent comment concisely explaining why single payer is cheaper and so much better than our horrendous private insurance system in this backward country.

Hello?

Don't American taxpayers deserve health care if they are paying taxes?

How can you people deny health care to your fellow tax-paying citizens, never mind children?!

Do you people never get old? Do you people never need medication as you age?

It's disgusting that American taxpayers are getting robbed instead of using it for health care!

Who are you evil people?

Why do you deny your fellow American taxpayers of what they deserve and earned working hard?

Ridiculous arguments.

A taxpayer and their children should get health care. The middle class are taxed the most in your country. You are robbing them of what is rightfully owed to them.

We have socialized medicine already. Medicaire for the old and Tricare for retired military. Last time I looked, everyone that pays taxes pays for these. Last time I looked both social programs work although the drug companies were given a big fat smoking lollipop with Medicaire part "D" (stands for dumb congress) that benefits no one but the drug companies.

So you crazy con-servatives, you want to take socialized medicine away from the old and away from the retired military? Go for it. It fits you.

I personally think both sides are low-lifes. The dems throw this kid into the public eye to further their adjenda. Then the right, go on a smear campaign against a hard working man/family to further their adjenda. I think they're all sick and all need to be sent packing. I think they should have a vote in the house denouncing this most horrible behavior. Think the republicans would be up for that?

How we should be expected to pay for other folks childrens health insurance when they make 80 thousand a year is ludicrous. My folks made of 1/3 of the 12 years ago and yet were able to pay for health insurance, why can't these folks. Give it to folks below the poverty level nationwide and nowhere else, is pretty simple.

Multiply the rolling out of one kid by 26 and that was the number of "snow flake babies" Shrub rolled out to justify not supporting stem cell research. What they (the con-serv-no-ones) don't tell you is that embryos are destroyed each and every day at fertility clinics nationwide that could otherwise be used for stem cell research. When a fifth grade mentality runs the show this is what we get. Heck of a job.

Typical of ABC to bury at the bottom of the story the REAL lowdown about Graeme's family's finances, i.e. the kids' scholarships to go to that school; and how much money their parents make. ABC is just as disgusting at the Republicans they shill for.

Don't you think that Congressmen and Senators...as well as people in the Administration make enough to obtain private health insurance and let us peasants off the "hook" for their health care costs?

Oh heck, let's get it over with and have another civil war. That way we can get rid of all the bad feelings in this nation by having an orgy or destruction.

The length at which the republican party and their conservative base is willing to stoop in order to justify president bush's incompetence truely amazes me, but to attack a 12 year old and members of his family for their health care needs and gratitude of a government assistance program to which is paid for by the taxes of hard working men and women of america is a new low.

This reminds me of the comment by Bob Orben, speechwriter for Gerald Ford: "A conservative is someone who believes the problem with our economy is that poor people have too much money."

For those conservative law makers who uphold such activities as attacting our children due their government assistance needs are disgusting at the least.

As I stated in my pervious post these are programs are fully funded by the taxes of every hard working man, woman, and child of america. NOT ONE RED CENT comes from the pockets of you greedy fools.

On a personal note, I truely believe with every fiber of my being that this has nothing what-so-ever to do with any government assisted program program wise, but more to do with safe guarding and securing monies to pay for and further fund this foolish and damning war. This administration will do whatever it takes to continue this occupation, even if that means the bloodshed and slaughter of our own or the crash of our economy, or even health of our children.

They will stop at nothing!

The right wing is correct - it is very hard to portion out help like this to only the most needy. Before you know it you are helping society in general, then the terrorists will have won.

That's why health care should be expanded to cover everyone. You know, just like we do with defense, police, firemen, public works like roads & bridges, etc.

Nine billion in cash missing in Iraq. Contractor fraud run amok in Iraq to the tune of tens of Billions of dollars. Cost for an illegal occupation 500 billion dollars.
So these scum are up in arms, without doing complete research, about two children who receive medical care from a government sponsored program! If they only showed the same concern over the waisted billions in Iraq. Or in Farm subsidies to Agribusiness, or Corporate Welfare to the tune of 200 billion dollars.

This just shows you that the democrats are idiots...and what is worse they think we are too...2 children x $20K means that they made far more than a combined $45K last year...Come on ABC, if your going to carry the democrat water, at least get the lies straight...

It's all about choices. While there seems to be some debate about the Frosts income and whether their kids receive financial aid for school, I say, look at the picture of the family in their kitchen. Granite countertops and glass cabinet doors. Very nice. Very fancy. And very expensive. Apparently they chose to remodel their kitchen rather than pay for health insurance. I don't have a fancy kitchen like that. I would rather pay for insurance for my family. Please don't use my taxes to pay for the Frost's lifestyle. Peace.

Is this America anymore? is this better than Iran?

I really don't understand how people can be so vicious and evil to wish bad on unhealthy kids. you call your self Christians!!! you are despicable a new low of American politics

Listen con-serv-no-ones....listen well...your tax dollars fund medicaire for the elderly and the poor, Tricare for military retirement medical care...and VA medical care for sick, injured, wounded and aged military vets. These are all programs based on socialized medicine. All of them, got that? Add up the numbers. You're going to come up with millions of beneficiaries. Millions of them. Do you truly want these programs to be eliminated? My wife and I grossed nearly 80K last year. A small chunk of that was our military retired pay which all tax payers pay for as well. Should this be eliminated as well? When our age is considered we would pay nearly $1000 per month to cover both of our health insurance needs. With our mortgage, helping our kids in college, cost of living in our chosen city of residence, etc., we would not be able to afford health care if not for Tricare, our military retired medical plan. At age 65 we transfer to medicaire with the needed part B and D paid out of pocket. Using the philosophy of most government haters (conservatives) we would be left out to dry as far as our medical coverage goes. Socialized medicine already exists and should be available for everyone in this country as it is in all other modern industrialized nations. Nothing you can say, write, do or fantasize will change the fact that it is needed here as well in America.

Our whole healthcare system is broke and we are losing thousands of jobs to countries where the employers don't bear the cost of healthcare. It has devasted entire industries in this country. Wake up people. You're already paying horrific costs for our broken healthcare system.

While some people have trouble reading, others seem to gloss over that the couple bought, in 1999, a commercial building for a cost of $160,000. The building has a tenant in addition to the Frost's business. How many people are too poor to have medical insurance, but still able to invest in commercial real estate. At the time they purchased the commercial real estate, The daughter now 9, would have been an infant. From photo's, it appears that there are 2 younger children in the home. So without health insurance, this couple had 2 more children, and bought a piece of commercial real estate. And we are some how supposed to believe that we should pay for their health insurance?

Why don't they sell the commercial building and pay for their own insurance, rather than ask for taxpayers to do it?

Finally, the injuries that the 2 children suffered were the result of a single car accident? Why is it that the auto insurance (mandatory in MD) did not pay for treatment?

"look at the picture of the family in their kitchen. Granite countertops and glass cabinet doors."

Ah. And you definitely know the Frosts paid full price for that kitchen, right? Because, come on, a woodworker couldn't get granite countertops without paying full price, right? It couln't have been part of an order for a client that went wrong? Right? You know, like wrong color? Those things never happen?

Hope none of you are living in glass houses. Yeah, get a job that provides insurance. Let the corporations determine what kind of health care you deserve.

The comments about ABC parroting the lies of right wing nuts is dead-on. They have the resources to verify the lies and/or expose the truth, but why should they do that when they can cloud every issue with "fair and balanced" reporting that leaves the impression that facts doesn't exist?

WMD? Where was the evidence?

Whitewater? What was the scandal?

Iraq and the war on terror? Where's the connection?

Cutting taxes AND balancing the budget? Where's the balanced budget?

It's never about facts, it's about propaganda.

Why would the Democrat/treason party exploit a little child by having said child read its Marxist/socialist talking points during the treason party's weekly radio address? Doesn't the Democrat/treason party know that ABC (and CBS, NBC, PBS, CNN, MSDNC, NPR, the Associated (with terrorists) Press, al Reuters, al McClatchy, the New York Times, the Washington Post, Time, Newsweek, U.S. News, et al.) will read the treason party's talking points as often as it wants and for free?

Rick Klein and ABC so-called "News" allege that Families USA is a "healthcare interest group". ROTFLMAO! So-called Families USA, like ABC so-called "News" is a militant Marxist/socialist lobbying/advocacy group.

If ours were a civilized society we would insure all children, middle class or not. No questions asked. Families with income of $100k or less regardless of number of children.

The middle class would not need to begrudge any help for the poor, their children would be taken care of too.

This article and some of the comments made are definite proof of just how crazy the neocons have become since GWB and his administration stole office. They have all become mean, nasty, attack dogs just like their idiot leader. They have become very dangerous people and our country is paying the consequences of their insanity.