Bush Promises to Veto New SCHIP Bill
Will House Republicans remain united?
By Bluey Posted in Congress | Health care | SCHIP — Comments (4) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
Democrats are trying to sway Republicans with their new SCHIP bill, but one of them won't be President Bush. The White House today released a veto threat for the Democrats' bill. Without "significant changes," Bush said he would reject the new version, which still expands SCHIP by $35 billion and includes small tweaks in hopes of picking off a handful of Republicans in the House.
H.R. 3963 continues to allow states to expand coverage without assuring that poor children have coverage first; continues to provide coverage for some adults through 2012; continues to allow the use of income disregards to increase eligibility levels; continues to move children from private health insurance to government programs; provides insufficient safeguards to assure that funds will not be spent on ineligible individuals; and, remarkably, actually costs more than the earlier bill, not withstanding supposed improvements in policy. Because H.R. 3963 has not addressed in a meaningful way the objections that caused the President to veto H.R. 976, the President will veto this legislation if it is presented to him without significant changes.
House Republicans are currently in a midst of using procedural tactics to delay a vote on the SCHIP bill today. They are displeased that Democrats are moving forward on a day when nearly a dozen Republicans have headed home to California to assess the damage caused by wildfires.
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Bush Promises to Veto New SCHIP Bill 4 Comments (0 topical, 4 editorial, 0 hidden) Post a comment »
Ander Crenshaw's office reports that he's still making up his mind.
Bill Shuster's (not Brad Shuster) wasn't sure, but thought that his vote was still no.
Mike Rogers' (MI) indicated that he was going to vote no.
The Fuzzy Puppy of the VRWC. I've been usurped!
you could be sure that there'd be no vote while Democratic reps went home.
The entire debate over SCHIP kind of shows one of the biggest problems I, as a fiscal conservative, have with Bush and some Republicans. They seem to have given up any sort of principled stand against entitlement spending, and instead quibble over details like what sort of income cap levels there are going to be, or whether it should be $35 billion or some smaller (though still well in the billions) amount. Why can't more fiscally conservative Republicans stand up against the bill on principle? And, more importantly, try to explain those principles? When Democrats spew bullshit like "If you don't support this bill, you want poor kids to die in the street" (and exploit children to do it) why do so many Republicans roll over? Much of it, I guess, is for the sake of electability, but at some point you've got to take a stand. Otherwise, all we're doing is delaying the inevitable.
Every government is a parliament of whores. The trouble is, in a democracy, the whores are us. -P.J. O'Rourke
...and made a few phone calls. I hope everyone does. Easy, and maybe makes a small difference. At least I feel like I did a small part.