S-CHIP Goes Down the Tubes Again
For the second time, President Bush has vetoed a major expansion of the S-CHIP children’s health insurance program despite Democratic efforts to rewrite the bill to meet his objections.
The new bill had firmer caps on income eligibility and banned children of illegal immigrants from qualifying.
In vetoing the bill, Bush said that “our nation’s goal should be to move children who have no health insurance to private coverage, not to move children who already have private health insurance to government coverage.”
Democrats dispute that expanding SCHIP to 10 million children would encourage families who have private insurance to dump their health plans in favor of the government program.
With only a little over a week left in the congressional session, it’s not clear whether a veto override vote that is guaranteed to fail will even be scheduled.
More here.
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10 Responses to “S-CHIP Goes Down the Tubes Again”
This little sham of a leader can’t seem to throw enough hundreds of Billions of what are essentially borrowed dollars at an unnecessary war, yet the request for a paltry 10 million to improve our own childrens health drives him to his veto pen. Amazing, absolutely amazing.
But because the President vetoed it, he wins.
Doesn’t everybody see what a winner the President is?
[sigh]
Y’all require correction — of the facts, here; I will not bother to try to correct deficient behavior.
This bill was little different than the other, a bad bill that was known from its inception that it would deservedly draw a veto.
Next time, the Congressional Democrats should do it right, or shut up (along with their camp followers) and await some effort by President Clinton to openly and honestly (well, we must wait to see that, given who we’re talking about) expand public health care provision to adults and replace privately-paid insurance with the publicly-subsidized or paid equivalent, rather than try and fail to sneak this through while claiming dishonestly that the bill is all about poor children.
If it was such a bad bill it wouldn’t have had so much bi-partisan support. The president has long indicated that he is incapable of compromise, and after 6 years of amiably accepting pork-laden bills , with not a single veto, has finally come to the conclusion that he should act like a fiscal conservative. He is partisan through and through as he proved by allowing Rove to manipulate Gonzales at the Justice Dept and by allowing Lurita Doans to ask non-political employees to support “our candidates”.
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Congressional Republicans are often happy to sign off on big spending the Dems want so they can get what they want. Obviously the GOP in Congress are okay with the defects in the bill, which was actually watered down from what the Democrats have been seeking.
At this point the Dems (who are behind this) need to either respond with a clean, lean bill or just wait for Hillary Clinton to demand much, much more.
In this case, he is ideological more than partisan, though he may be trying to boost his party’s image with the public (and I doubt that will be achieved).
Note that, from an earlier Pew report,
and
(emphases mine)
which not only is good news for the Democrats but for those who wish to see (federal) government provision of health care to more people in this country. The Dems can easily afford to wait, even accusing the GOP in Congress of “being harmfully destructive” to the two S-CHIP efforts as well as Bush, and promising “real reform” once they are in office (exploit this in the campaign since the issue is a big winner politically).
I generally detest commentary that involves mind-reading. This time, I can’t help it, and I’ll indulge in some of my own, on a purely hyhothetical basis.
President Bush’s new found love affair with the veto pen sprang up extemely apruptly, with the new Congressional party compostion.
The Republicans are out peddling the line about the Democratic Congress not getting anything done. That’s the line used by Rove, on Charlie Rose, BTW.
Could there be a connection?
Would our President stoop to political games?
HMMM.
Doma- Of course that’s what’s going on.
The Democrats have passed many things in the House, only to see the Republicans in the Senate block them with the collusion of Bush. That’s not a do-nothing Congress, it’s a do-nothing Republican Party. It wouldn’t matter what the Democrats did with any bill. Unless it’s 100% what Bush wants it won’t pass.
[...] The Moderate Voice: “For the second time, President Bush has vetoed a major expansion of the S-CHIP children's health insurance program despite Democratic efforts to rewrite the bill to meet his objections. The new bill had firmer caps on income eligibility and banned children of illegal immigrants from qualifying. In vetoing the bill, Bush said that “our nation's goal should be to move children who have no health insurance to private coverage, not to move children who already have private health insurance to government coverage.'” [...]