Getting ready to do battle

Now that the GOP donor class is taken care of — the tax overhaul bill, after all, is primarily a corporate tax cut and bonus round for the country’s richest people — perhaps Congress can deal with two essential pieces of business left to languish too long.

The country must finish work on health care for children and protection for immigrants brought here illegally as children.

First, the children. Health care for some 9 million children across the United States is in jeopardy. Heedless lawmakers have failed to renew legislation to fund the Children’s Health Insurance Program, which ensures children from lowerincome families can receive essential medical care. CHIP long has provided coverage for pregnant women and children not poor enough to qualify for Medicaid, yet too poor to afford private insurance.

That Congress found the time to pass massive tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans but continues to leave children out in the cold is beyond shameful. Lawmakers missed the Sept. 30 deadline to renew CHIP and appear unwilling to act before the end of 2017. That’s despite the program’s long history of bipartisan support since 1997.

States are sending out notice that they will be running out of money soon, leaving sick children and worried parents wondering what to do next (New Mexico, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, appears to have funding at least through July). CHIP covers routine care, immunizations and treatment for serious conditions; because it exists, the number of uninsured children in the country is at an all-time low.

Yet, Congress likely will not act soon enough to relieve the concerns of people worried about their children’s health care.

Before the end of the year, Congress also is unlikely to put in place a legislative solution to deal with the 800,000 or so young adults with protected status under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA.

There are hopeful signs — a half-dozen senators have been meeting to work out a compromise. The administrative DACA program, put in place by President Barack Obama, was suspended by President Donald Trump earlier this year. He told Congress he wanted a legislative remedy; but the clock is ticking, since protections expire in March.

Complicating the picture are questions about what kinds of border security measures a DACA solution might contain. Democrats know that with Republicans in power, such measures likely will be part of the final legislation. However, the details matter, and a Trump administration intent on funding the border wall or expanding private prisons could make a compromise unacceptable. Still, that people are talking and discussing a compromise is an essential first step to a bipartisan, humane solution.

Taking care of children. Providing certainty for young adults who should not be held responsible for the actions of their parents. Congress has much work to do.

So do citizens, as Republicans will have to be pushed on both renewal of CHIP and the DACA legislation. And they are not stopping with their tax overhaul — as intended, the cuts will grow deficits, which will lead to cries to trim spending. It is estimated this legislation could increase the federal deficit by as much as $1.5 trillion dollars.

When that happens, targeted programs will be those that provide a safety net — Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, food aid and the like. The increased deficit — as much as tax cuts for the wealthy — is an intended consequence of this legislation. Never forget anti-tax activist Grover Norquist, who famously said: “I don’t want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub.”

The bill passed this week by the GOP-led Congress is a big step to shrinking funds for running government, which in turn will lead to calls to “reform” Social Security, Medicare and other social programs. Those reforms, just like these tax cuts, will be sliced from the hides of the hidden people President Trump claimed he would represent. While this mischief was being written into law, the needs of children and young adults were ignored. That won’t change without a hue and cry from citizens. Now, more than ever, governing must be a participatory sport. If, that is, our elected officials can hear the cries of the people over the whispers of their donors.