Poster child

In an effort to make Bush and Republicans into villains for vetoing the SCHIP health care bill, Democrats enlisted the help of Baltimore 7th grader  Graeme Frost

The 12-year-old Baltimore boy, whose family relied on the government-funded insurance program after he and his sister were severely injured in a 2004 car accident, came to Washington yesterday to record the Democrats' weekly radio address.

"If it weren't for CHIP, I might not be here today," Graeme says in the address, to air today on stations across the country....

Graeme, a seventh-grader at the Park School, has a message for the president.

"If I could speak to him, I would say, 'You have to sign this bill,'" he told reporters yesterday during his first visit to the Capitol. "I'm guessing he wants this money for Iraq. Our future isn't in Iraq. It's here."

The blond, bespectacled youth rose at 6 a.m. in his family's home in the Butchers Hill neighborhood of Baltimore yesterday for the trip to Washington.

Earlier in the week, two staffers from the office of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid had called to ask Graeme about his health care experience....

The Senate staffers wrote the script for Graeme.

"My parents work hard and always make sure my sister and I have everything we need, but the hospital bills were huge," he says in the address. "We got the help we needed because we had health insurance for us through the CHIP program. But there are millions of kids out there who don't have CHIP, and they wouldn't get the care that my sister and I did if they got hurt."

Graeme said the recording in a studio at the Democratic National Committee headquarters "took quite a few takes." But Democratic staffers said he finished the job in fewer attempts than some senators.

But if Graeme is the poster child for the problems  with the nation's health care system that Democrats want to illustrate, he is also the poster child for why the bill was vetoed as Kim Priestap writing at Wizbang points out

...Mr. Halsey Frost, Graeme's father, owns his own woodworking design studio, Frostworks, so his claim that he can't get health insurance through work is shockingly deceptive. He chooses not to get health care for his family.  Second, Graeme and his sister Gemma attend the very exclusive Park School, which has a tuition of $20,000 a year, per child. Third, they live in a 3,000+ square foot home in a neighborhood with smaller homes that are selling for at least $400,000. 

Yet, hardworking taxpayers who sacrifice many things such as expensive private schools and expensive houses in order to buy their own health care for their families are supposed to subsidize this family's health insurance premiums.

Mark Steyn writing at The Corner makes this observation:

Bad things happen to good people, and they cause financial problems and tough choices. But, if this is the face of the "needy" in America, then no-one is not needy. And, if everyone needs assistance from the federal government, so be it. But I don't think I want to drive down the road where Bonnie Frost wants to take us - because at the end of it there are no free-born citizens, just a nation where everyone is a ward of the state.

This is a nose-under-the-tent attempt at Government-run universal health care, no doubt about it. In contrast, I think the plan proposed by Senator Clinton isn't so bad. In fact, I think it's a damn good starting point.

But better yet, if you really think that Universal Health Care is a good thing, then get behind something almost all Americans can get behind: discount everyone's tax return by the amount they spend for health care. No exceptions; no deduction; straight off the top.

Now why won't that be proposed by the Democrats who want to make Graeme Frost their poster child?

UPDATE: From Dan Riehl

Yes, the Frost children are victims, but not of conservatives. They look more like victims of a couple of mostly spoiled brats who became parents and never felt compelled to take responsibility for themselves when it came to the bottom line on that. There are poor people in America who need help, particularly as regards Health care. The point is, the family above shouldn't be and simply aren't among them. Call Dad next time you want some bucks FH. And kindly leave the rest of America's collective wallet the hell alone.

Please