Oh For Pete’s Sake

This is one for the record books. The "poor" child who read the Democratic radio address turns out to be nothing of the sort. Mark Steyn at The Corner:

President Bush, are you smarter than a seventh-grader?

Apparently not. Graeme Frost of Baltimore is 12 years old, a seventh-grader at the Park School, and he understands why children need health care and their parents need help paying for it. He explained it during a rebuttal to the president's Saturday radio address. Yes, we know, Senate staffers wrote the speech for Graeme. That doesn't take away from the message. Does anyone really think President Bush writes his own material?

Of course not. And nor does The Baltimore Sun, which did a nice fluffy soft-focus story typing out the Dems' press release and not querying a word:

Bonnie Frost works for a medical publishing firm; her husband, Halsey, is a woodworker. They are raising their four children on combined income of about $45,000 a year. Neither gets health insurance through work.

If it ever occurred to Matthew Hay Brown, the Sun's "reporter", to look into just what kind of "woodworking" Mr Frost did, he managed to suppress the urge.

"icwhatudo" at Free Republic, however, showed rather more curiosity than the professional reporter paid to investigate the story and did a bit of Googling. Mr Frost, the "woodworker", owns his own design company and the commercial property it operates from, part of which space he also rents out; they have a 3,000-sq-ft home on a street where a 2,000-sq-ft home recently sold for half a million dollars; he was able to afford to send two children simultaneously to a $20,000-a-year private school; his father and grandfather were successful New York designers and architects; etc. This is apparently the new definition of "working families":

Here's the Frost's Wedding Announcement. From the New York Times. (This one comes right up on Google if you search his name.)

Mr. Frost, also 26, is known as Halsey. He owns Frostworks, a woodworking and furniture-design studio in Baltimore. His mother, Randy Frost, is a quilt artist. His father is the deputy director of design and construction for the City University of New York in Manhattan. The bridegroom's late grandfather Frederick G. Frost Jr. was an architect responsible for several public buildings in New York, including Martin Luther King High School in Manhattan..

Here's more of what "icwhatudo" dug up:

What the article does not mention is that Halsey Frost has owned his own company "Frostworks",since this marriage announcement in the NY Times in 1992 so he chooses to not give himself insurance. He also employed his wife as "bookkeeper and operations management" prior to her recent 2007 hire at the "medical publishing firm". As her employer, he apparently denied her health insurance as well.

His company, Frostworks, is located at 3701 E BALTIMORE ST. A building that was purchased for $160,000 in 1999. The buildings owner is listed as DIVERSIFIED INDUSTRIAL DESIGN CENTER, LLC whose mailing address is listed as 104 S Collington Ave which is the Frost's home. The commercial property he owns is also listed as the business address for another company called Reillys Designs which leads to the question of whether rental income is included in the above mentioned salary total

The current market value of their improved 3,040 SF home at 104 S Collington Ave is unknown but 113 S COLLINGTON AVE, also an end unit, sold for $485,000 this past March and it was only 2,060 SF. A photo taken in the family's kitchen shows what appears to be a recent remodeling job with granite counter tops and glass front cabinets.

Why in the world do these people need SCHIP? And how does a $45,000 a year reported income manage to send two kids at once to a $20,000 a year private school? This is a blatant fraud by the Democrats and easily checked. So why in the world did they do this? And what the heck is wrong with the media? They look like utter fools here. They have been rolled and rolled badly. If I was the reporter or the editor, I'd about have smoke coming out my my ears about now.

UPDATE: Others:

Brutally Honest: "Bush's political machine needs to get the message out that when the government is spending money on those who really don't need the help, the truly needy are passed over."

Don Surber: "This business of “affordable insurance” is socialistic. The Frosts found an “affordable” business building and an “affordable” 3,000-square foot house and an “affordable” private school. Why couldn’t these yuppies afford to cover their own damned kids?"

Wizbang: "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."

Protein Wisdom: I’m glad little Graham and his family were able to get help, and I hope he reaches full rehabilitation.  But perhaps the Democrats ought to take more care in the spokespeople they choose, if they wish to tug at our heartstrings.

Five Feet of Fury: "Times have changed and now the poor get fat."

The Shotgun: Does that look like the home of someone who can't "afford" health care and needs everyone else to pay for it for them?

Democracy Project: "All aboard the dole train(-wreck)"

Wake Up America: "You do not have to be a math wiz to figure out that the numbers do not add up."

Gateway Pundit: "…a child who suffered injuries in a car accident, was the prop this week for democratic leaders Reid and Pelosi (Pelosi also has another prop on her lap) to use in their SCHIP's Campaign to expand the federal governmenT."

Powerline: "Why is it that the chance of any mainstream media reporter doing easy internet research to check the accuracy of the Democrats' story, as this Freeper did, is exactly zero?"

Just Barking Mad: "Maybe he ought to use some of that money to take care of his family instead of using the government’s boot to force us to pay for his."

Mark Tapscott:And wouldn't it be wonderful if all journalists would greet all claims by all politicians and advocates with a healthy dose of Mencken-esque skepticism – i.e. as requiring verification before publication?"

Say Anything: "A little investigative reporting from the media could have fleshed this out, and put the use of Graeme as a Democrat propaganda public out as a gross falsehood, but they didn’t."

STACLU: "Looks like a little backfire is on the horizon."

Sister Toldjah: "Bbbbbut so what if the story doesn’t exactly fit the liberal narrative, right? As long as they succeed in demagoguing the opposition … "

American Pundit: "A half-a-million dollar home, $190,000 in commercial property, successful architect grandfathers, owning his own design company, a beautiful kitchen complete with what appears to be granite counter tops, an estimated $1,200 a month mortgage, personal injury auto insurance required in Maryland, but the Frosts couldn’t afford an estimated $452? Hmm."

Flopping Aces: "This is the family the Democrats chose to represent SCHIP?  If there was a more perfect family why SCHIP should not be expanded its this one."

The Hedgehog Report: "Which One Of Edwards’ America Do They Live In?"

Doug Ross: "In other words, Democrats want to pay for a childrens' healthcare program by expanding the percentage of poverty-stricken smokers."

Prairie Pundit: "It is surprising that Democrats would show so much compassion for small business. Perhaps they can offer the Frosts' a tax cut with which they can buy their own health insurance."

Newsbusters: "They tried to drop the absolute moral authority bomb on it big time and paint him as not caring about children. Now it looks like a little backfire is on the horizon." (Kind of a double there – the post is from John at STACLU.)

Instapundit: "Question: If business owners with half-million-dollar-plus homes and kids in expensive private schools now count as "working families," does this mean they'll get tax cuts?"

Mac's Mind: "Personally as one with a 1200 square foot pad in over priced South Florida and who pays 500 bucks to insure his wife (I’ve got the VA), I’m a little miffed at these upperly brats crying over benefits they damn well could afford to pay for."

Miss Beth's Victory Dance: "….once again, it's the Dems, playing a partisan game for politics, parading the wealthy in the guise of the poor, refusing to check facts and attempting to force their socialization on us, the taxpayer."

I kind of feel obligated to throw in the only two left-leaning blogs who have even come close to addressing this particular toxic mess:

Matthew Yglesias: "More dispatches from the continuing conservative war on adorable children." (Ed Note: Are those the adorable children who's parents are sitting on a (conservative) half a million dollars in assets and asking for a government handout? Just asking.)

Whiskey Fire: "The point is, health care costs can make it impossible for hardworking middle class families to have a decent life. This is a problem. SCHIP expansion would help to solve it at a moderate cost." (Ed Note: One reasonably should ask why, if the children were hurt in an automobile accident, the automobile insurance magically did not cover them and SCHIP was the only alternative – much less why the parents were relying on other people's taxes to pay for this.)

And yes, I did a pretty darn snarky new post about this.