University of Miami Pediatrician, Dr. Gwen Wurm, does a checkup on Christina Brownlee, 5, as her father, Isaac Eady, holds her brother, Isaiah Eady, 1, on October 3, 2007 in Miami, Fla. Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images.
by Frank James
President Bush made good on his threat to veto the $35 billion, five-year expansion of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program or SCHIP.
He wielded his veto pen this morning before he headed out to an event in Lancaster, Pennsylvania where he was to talk about the budget and speak of his veto as good fiscal stewardship.
The president had warned lawmakers in recent weeks that he would veto the legislation because he said it spent much more than he thought it should on the popular program.
He also charged that the expansion would be more “federalization” of health care since the program as approved by Congress would grant eligibility to more higher-income, middle-class children.
The president’s opposition to the renewal of the program has angered Democrats and Republicans alike, with Democrats repeatedly accusing the president of being willing to spend unlimited amounts on the Iraq War but of being stingy when it came to domestic priorities.
Meanwhile, Republican lawmakers who backed the legislation, especially in the Senate, charged the president with misrepresenting the bill that was finally approved, saying it was not excessive as the president claimed. Bush hadn’t vetoed the legislation by the time White House Press Secretary Dana Perino met with reporters this morning before the president left for Pennsylvania.
She was asked if the White House had a post-veto strategy.
Here’s her exchange with reporters:
Q Yes. Back on S-CHIP, has there been any activity from the President in terms of a post-veto strategy? Has he reached out to Pelosi or Reid about trying to —
MS. PERINO: Well, we’ve made public comments — we’ve made public comments in which we’ve told the leaders and all the members of Congress that the President is going to veto the bill that they sent him. They knew he was going to. They made their political point, and what the President said is, ‘Look, send me the bill, I will veto it, and then we will get about the business of trying to find some common ground and reach an agreement on a way forward.’
Q So he has not yet talked to Pelosi or Reid or the finance people about what a compromise might be?
MS. PERINO: Well, I don’t think that — there’s a two-way street. You’ve been on — out on Pennsylvania Avenue and I don’t think we’ve seen anything from them either. They’ve only sent a bill that they knew the President couldn’t sign, and then used a lot of different ways to demagogue the issue against the President. So the President remains somebody who’s committed to expanding S-CHIP? He wants to make sure that the neediest children are covered first. He’s going to veto this bill, but he does want to work with members of Congress to see if we can find common ground.
Q What do you mean by that?
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MS. PERINO: Well, there’s a — I think that there’s different ways that you can get to it. I think that we would like to see Congress look at a bill that would make sure that the neediest children are taken care of first. I’ve said before that the provision that ensures that the children who are under 200 percent of poverty level should be the ones who are covered under S-CHIP and that they should be taken care of first. Right now there are 750,000 of them who don’t even have that coverage. We’d like to make sure that they’re taken care of first before expanding the program beyond 200 percent of the poverty.
Bush’s veto means the program, whose purpose is to provide health care to children in families with working parents, will be funded by a continuing resolution which maintains funding at current levels.
The problem with that, according to supporters of the expansion, is that about six million children who are eligible under the current guidelines won’t be insured because current funding levels don’t account for population growth and inflation.
Bush’s veto sets up a chance for Congress to attempt to override his decision. There are enough votes in the Senate to override the veto, with the bill passing there with the two thirds vote required and at least two more votes for override available.
Two Democrats who missed the vote because they were campaigning for their party’s presidential nomination, Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, are reliable votes to override.
The House is a different matter however. The bill passed there without the two-thirds vote needed for an override since not enough Republicans joined the Democrats to approve the bill.
So Democrats are hoping they can raise enough public pressure to peel off enough Republican votes to get to to two thirds necessary to pass the bill over the president’s veto. House
Republicans, stung by the criticism before last year’s mid-term election by fiscal conservatives, that they had become free-spenders, are attempting to use their resistance to an expansion of the health-insurance program to re-establish their bona fides as budget hawks.
Here’s a reaction to the presidential veto from House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.):
“The President’s incomprehensible veto of this bipartisan, fiscally responsible legislation – which is supported by strong majorities in the House and Senate, 43 governors, industry groups and the American people – not only violates his own campaign promise in 2004, but also demonstrates a stunning lack of compassion for some of the most vulnerable members of our society.
“After enacting policies that instigated record budget deficits and debt over the last six and one-half years, the President should not try to establish his fiscal bonafides and pander to his conservative political base by denying health insurance to millions of poor American children. Nor should the President be dispensing lectures on fiscal responsibility given his track record since 2001 and the fact that he now is asking the American people to spend another $190 billion on Iraq.
“In the days ahead, the House of Representatives will attempt to override the President’s unjustified veto. We will work to persuade the large number of our Republican colleagues who insist on standing with the President to instead join the bipartisan majorities in both chambers – and America’s children – in overriding this veto.”