Bush Vetoes Kids Health Bill

Oct 04, 04:16 PM

Current Headlines: By Mark Silva, Chicago Tribune

Oct. 4--WASHINGTON -- Setting the stage for a politically charged clash with Congress, President Bush on Wednesday vetoed a popular bill to expand federally funded children's health insurance -- and this time, he faces significant resistance from within his own party as well.

As with his rejection of timelines for troop withdrawals from Iraq, the president used his veto to take a politically unpopular stance. Voters' support for billions of dollars in additional spending on children's health insurance runs stronger, polls suggest, than public support for ending the war in Iraq.

Yet unlike his veto of troop withdrawals, Bush may not be able to sustain his rejection of the health-care measure, with Democratic leaders casting the battle as a conflict between the president and children.

"The lines are seldom so clear on an issue," said Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.). "The president is wrong. The Congress is right. ... The Congress is right to fight like hell to override this veto."

And Democrats aren't the only ones rallying to override the veto. Many Republicans worry Bush's stand could imperil them in 2008 if the Democrats try to portray the GOP as indifferent to kids' health.

The Senate passed the expansion in the State Children's Health Insurance Program, or SCHIP, by a veto-proof margin, while the House fell a little short of the necessary two-thirds majority. Now some GOP members are trying to change their fellow Republicans' minds.

"I'm going to be making some of those phone calls to the House of Representatives to find the votes to override," said Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), one of 18 Senate Republicans supporting the bill.

A veto is the only response, the president and his allies insist, to a measure that seeks an additional $35 billion for government-financed health insurance that could be extended to many middle-class children. Bush said the bill "would move health care in this country in the wrong direction."

"The policies of the government ought to be, help poor children and to focus on poor children," Bush said Wednesday in Lancaster, Pa. "The policies of the government ought to be, help people find private insurance, not federal coverage."

The measure would offer health insurance for children of families with incomes of up to three times the federal poverty level, or $62,000 for a family of four. Under the program, states pay 25 percent of the costs, the federal government the rest.

Seven states already have extended coverage to that level under SCHIP, which was first enacted in 1998, and two states -- New Jersey and New York -- have taken it beyond.

With 6.6 million children covered under SCHIP -- which now covers children in families up to twice the poverty level -- congressional supporters say an additional 3.8 million children could be covered under the bill.

The issue has spilled into the 2008 presidential campaign, with Democrats chiding the president and Republicans backing Bush. Sen. John McCain of Arizona called the cigarette tax boost that would fund the bill "a phony smoke-and-mirrors way of paying for it."

This is only the fourth veto from Bush. He twice vetoed federal spending for embryonic stem cell research. Earlier this year, he vetoed a $120billion war bill that included timelines for troop withdrawals, forcing Congress to give him a funding bill without restrictions.

Public support for the SCHIP bill apparently runs strong, with a recent Washington Post/ABC News poll indicating 72 percent of Americans support $35 billion in new federal spending for health care for children.

The political action committee MoveOn.org plans to sponsor more than 200 rallies across the country Thursday to pressure members of Congress to override the veto.

The health-care industry also is pressing for an override, which the American Medical Association calls "vital to protect low-income children whose parents work hard but aren't able to afford health insurance."

Ed Gillespie, counselor to the president, insists Bush still wants a compromise.

"I assume that the Congress will move quickly to hold a vote on overriding or sustaining that veto," Gillespie said. "Then after the Democrats do that, we'll determine where they're willing to go."

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