Category — Reagan 21

A news item at Peter Roskam’s House web site dated May 12 announces that Roskam was honored yesterday by Adventist GlenOaks Hospital in Glendale Heights for having “secured” $190,000 for their new “no-wait” emergency room. At the same time, the hospital dedicated the ER’s radiation facilities to the late Rep. Henry Hyde, Roskam’s predecessor for his work on behalf of the advancement of medical care in the district”, referring, of course, to his tireless efforts to interject the federal government into the relationship between women and their physicians. But I digress.

Adventist Health System, which operates the hospital in Glendale Heights, as well as others in Bolingbrook, LaGrange, and Hinsdale is one of the largest faith-based health systems in the country. According to the hospital’s web site they are in the midst of a $7 million transformation of their emergency department. Why this $190,000 grant secured by Roskam was necessary is unclear. Its a drop in the bucket relative to the size of the project. It is not a drop in the bucket relative to the taxes I pay, however. I figure its as about 8.6 years of my tax dollars, or about 2.5 years of my labor. Not sure why all that money should be going to Adventist. Seems like they could be paying for this. Maybe $190,000 is the cost of getting someone to name something after Henry Hyde. Or maybe this is just a $190,000 donation to Roskams re-election campaign from us taxpayers.

I am not opposed to earmarks for good purposes. But this one disturbs me for two reasons.

First, because Roskam has spent so much time complaining about the earmark process. In fact, as I have noted previously, Roskam joined Reagan 21, a caucus whose members pledged to end all earmarks. Seems a tad hypocritical.

Second, and most important, Roskam is using this earmark to mislead voters when it comes to his record on health care. Roskam is quoted in the article as saying:

“Ensuring access to quality, affordable health care is one of the biggest concerns of families in my district,” said Roskam. “This is a perfect example of why I went to Congress. Advocating on behalf of the health and well being of my constituents is one of my greatest responsibilities and I am proud to have had a small part in bringing advanced health care to Glendale Heights.”:

But voters in the 6th should understand that Roskam’s legislative record shows him to have been a consistent opponent of Democratic efforts to provide greater access to health care for residents of the district. Peter Roskam has voted repeatedly against the expansion of SCHIP, the children’s health insurance program. Roskam has also voted against parity for mental health services in group health plans. And Roskam has even voted against funding for improved health services for veterans.

So if you live in the 6th and lack acces to affordable health care, don’t be fooled. Roskam has done nothing in his term to help you and shows no inclination to do anything in the future.

Read what Roskam’s opponent, Jill Morgenthaler, has to say about access to health care here.

Peter Roskam loves to harrangue Democrats about earmarks.

Last year Peter Roskam joined Reagan 21 , a caucus of extreme conservative Republican Senators and Representatives of the likes of Tom Coburn and Jim Demint. Among its other objectives Reagan 21 committed itself to ending all earmarks.

Needless to say, I was surprised when Citizens Against Government Waste released its 2008 Pig Book, a compendium of earmarks, and it revealed 10 earmarks attributed to Roskam at a cost of $12 million. Not a huge number but quite a bit for someone committed to ending all earmarks. I wonder if he’ll have to turn in his Reagan 21 membership card.

The projects involved seem pretty laudable, a big chunk of the $12 million going to PACE and METRA which I support. It just makes Roskam seem a bit silly.

Coburn and Demint honored their no earmarks pledges. I didn’t check on all the other Reagan 21 members.

The Reagan 21 web site looks a bit forlorn as of this writing. I signed up for their mailing list but haven’t heard from them. The site does present an interesting statistic:

“In 1996, there was 3,023 earmarks at a cost of $19.5 billion. The number of earmarks skyrocketed to 15,877 in 2005 at a cost of $47.4 billion.”

But wait a minute. Which party controlled Congress during those years? Kind of makes Reagan 21 look a little silly too.