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Bush renews threat to veto children’s health legislation |
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By Elana Schor
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Posted: 09/21/07 07:18 PM [ET] |
As negotiators closed in on a $35 billion deal to extend health insurance coverage for children, President Bush defied lawmakers with a fresh threat to veto the bipartisan bill that aggravated one senior Senate Republican.
The battle over the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, or SCHIP, gives Senate Democrats their best chance at successfully overriding a Bush veto. Senators pushed hard to keep down the bill’s price tag and take Medicare out of the mix, frustrating some House Democrats, but the White House opposition dealt a blow to both sides of the SCHIP conference talks.
Sen. Chuck Grassley (Iowa), senior Republican on the Finance Committee, had implored Bush to reconsider his veto vow. But after Bush incorrectly described the children’s health bill as providing coverage for families earning up to $80,000 a year, Grassley fired back.
“The president’s understanding of our bill is wrong,” Grassley said, his voice rising with anger. “I urge him to reconsider his veto message based on a bill we might pass, not something someone on his staff told him wrongly is in my bill.”
The SCHIP deal would raise cigarette taxes by 61 cents per pack to pay for expanded health coverage while taking aim at a Bush administration directive that would restrict states’ ability to raise income eligibility levels for the program.
Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), chairman of the Finance panel, said Thursday that Democrats still plan to send Bush a bill before current SCHIP funding runs out on Sept. 30.
“The president may be willing to cut off healthcare for low-income kids, but here in the Congress, we will not,” Baucus said in a statement.
Bush pointed a finger back at Democrats, accusing them of forcing a veto showdown for political gain.
“Democrats in Congress have decided to pass a bill they know will be vetoed,” Bush told reporters. “As if this weren’t irresponsible enough, Congress is waiting until the SCHIP program is just about to expire until getting a final bill passed.”
The White House backs a $5 billion SCHIP extension, one-tenth the size of the House’s original plan. While the administration continues its push for a smaller bill, Bush added, “Congress has an obligation to make sure health insurance for poor children does not lapse.”
Grassley and other backers of the SCHIP deal were long aware of the veto threat, but their disappointment at Bush’s Thursday comments was palpable. Eighteen Republican senators, many of them centrists facing reelection fights next year, joined every Democrat to give the health insurance bill a veto-proof margin last month.
Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), who also lobbied Bush to rescind the veto threat, said he was still hopeful that the president would reconsider.
“They misconstrued what our compromise bill does,” Hatch said.
The $80,000 eligibility figure cited by Bush was taken from a request filed by New York to add higher-income families to its SCHIP enrollment. The administration denied that request earlier this month, following with a directive that prevents states from offering SCHIP to families that make more than 250 percent of the federal poverty level without demonstrating 95 percent coverage of children from lower income brackets.
Democrats, particularly those from wealthier states, have condemned the SCHIP directive and promised to overturn it. Grassley and Hatch said Thursday that the issue remains one of a few still under discussion among SCHIP conferees.
Conscious of the broad public support for expanding SCHIP, Democrats swiftly lambasted Bush. Sen. Edward Kennedy (Mass.) called the veto vow “a cruel threat to needy children.” House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (Md.) said Bush is “obstinately determined to defy the will of the American people.”
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) accused Bush of “going back on his word,” referring in a statement to the president’s support for expanding SCHIP during his 2004 campaign. In a briefing with reporters, Reid compared Bush’s support for trillions of dollars in money for the war in Iraq with his refusal to endorse new spending on health coverage for low-income children.
“No wonder he’s so low in the polls,” Reid said. “There aren’t that many rich people to bring him up in the polls.”
Provided that Bush makes good on his threat, lawmakers likely will have to pass a short-term SCHIP bill to keep the program afloat. Mike Leavitt, secretary of Health and Human Services, suggested openness to the 18-month SCHIP extension offered this week by Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas). |
