Veto ignites health fight
WASHINGTON – With his long-promised veto Wednesday of a bill to expand health insurance for children, President Bush has ignited an ideological battle that could well rage on into next year’s presidential campaign.
At bottom, the issue is whether government should take the lead in extending health care benefits to uninsured children – mostly in low-income, but some in middle-class families – or whether the problem should be left primarily to the private sector.
The children’s program, managed by states within federal guidelines, also has become entangled in Bush’s late-innings effort to help the GOP recapture its image as the party of fiscal restraint after six years of budget deficits and increased federal spending.
Democrats and Republicans are seemingly convinced they will gain more from confrontation than compromise. Democrats will try to override Bush’s veto in two weeks. The effort is likely to fall short, even though the bill had significant Republican support.
If the veto stands, Democrats said they will repass the measure without significant changes and send it back to the White House, forcing the GOP to go on record again as opposing expansion of a program that currently serves about 6 million children. An estimated 9 million children remain uninsured nationwide, and the number has been rising as employers cut coverage.
For his part, Bush on Wednesday cast the issue in terms of those who want to help the poor and those who want to increase the size and cost of government.
“The policies of the government ought to be to help poor children and to focus on poor children, and the policies of the government ought to be to help people find private insurance, not federal coverage,” he told an audience of business leaders in Lancaster, Pa. “And that’s where the philosophical divide comes in.”
On the Democratic side, the line of attack was laid down by Rep. Jim Cooper, D-Tenn.
“This has got to be up there with motherhood and apple pie. This is Tiny Tim. And who is against Tiny Tim? The only person in all of literature was Ebenezer Scrooge,” he said, referring to Charles Dickens’ classic story of a crippled boy and a hard-hearted man who regains his sense of compassion at Christmastime.
Cooper, a fiscal conservative who voted against a more expansive version of the bill this summer, said Bush “is playing into Democratic hands. Either the program will get passed, and he’ll look like Ebenezer Scrooge, or we won’t override the veto and he still looks like Ebenezer Scrooge.”
The political bind for Republicans – particularly those in swing districts – is reflected in polls that show broad public support for covering uninsured children. Utah Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch called it “the morally right thing to do.”
The issue, however, also carries risks for Democrats. They have vowed to make no further compromises, having scaled back their ambitions during negotiations with leading GOP senators. And they could get blamed for politicizing a well-established program that has been seen as a bipartisan success story.
Commonly referred to as SCHIP, the State Children’s Health Insurance Program was created to help children of the working poor – low-income families who earned too much to get free coverage under Medicaid but could not afford private insurance.
Under the current law, which remains in effect while the struggle over a long-term extension goes on, children in families earning up to about $40,000 a year – roughly twice the federal poverty level – can be covered.
But some states have won permission to extend eligibility to families with incomes substantially above the official poverty line. The bill approved by Congress would permit states to expand eligibility to about three times the poverty level, or slightly more than $60,000 a year.
The congressional bill would spend $60 billion over five years to expand the program to cover 9 million to 10 million children, and pay for it with a sharp hike in tobacco taxes. Bush has offered $30 billion – a 20 percent increase over current levels – but not enough to maintain current enrollment levels, budget analysts say.
“There clearly is a rationale to argue that families with incomes of $64,000 should not get government-paid insurance. But that said, it will take some superb communications to persuade voters that the White House really is on the side of children’s health,” said Whit Ayres, a GOP pollster.
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who is pursuing coverage for all Californians, issued a statement saying he was “deeply disappointed” by the veto, but Bush got support from Republican presidential candidate John McCain. In an interview with CNN, the Arizona senator said it was the “right call by the president.”
A House vote on whether to override Bush’s veto is scheduled for Oct. 18, giving supporters two weeks to try to convert Republicans. While the bill passed the Senate by a veto-proof majority, the 265-159 House vote was short of the required two-thirds margin.
House GOP leaders say they are confident they will sustain the president’s veto, although some acknowledge it will be a difficult vote.
“Politically, on the face of it, it’s a very risky vote for Republicans,” said Rep. Jim McCrery, R-La., a leader on health care issues. “But from a policy standpoint, we’re very confident.”
Backers of the program would need to peel off at least 17 Republicans to have chance to override the veto.
Democrats say they will keep sending the bill back to the White House until Republicans are forced to back down.
“At the end of the day, people will tire of that,” said Rep. Mary Bono, R-Calif. “People will call it for what it is: political gamesmanship.”
A supporter of the program, Bono said she intends to vote to override Bush’s veto.