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House schedules new SCHIP vote; Hoyer open to changes |
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By Mike Soraghan
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Posted: 10/24/07 07:14 PM [ET] |
Democrats announced Tuesday that they plan to bring their children’s health insurance proposal back to the floor again this week, quickly reigniting a fight with President Bush where they clearly believe they are on the right side of public opinion.
They plan to change the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) legislation to address some of the more effective talking points raised by Bush and House Republicans. But they stress that insuring 10 million children is their “litmus test.”
“Some of the concerns I have seen referenced in the papers, I think can be addressed,” House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said. “I am talking to people, and I don’t feel I am in a negotiation.”
He said some Republicans asked to meet with him on the issue. Democratic aides said Rep. Ray LaHood (R-Ill.) asked for the meeting. Centrist Reps. Mike Castle (R-Del.) and Fred Upton (R-Mich.) are possible attendees.
Hoyer said in his morning meeting with reporters Tuesday that either the healthcare bill or the Democrats’ surveillance bill would come up this week. But after the Democratic Caucus meeting at lunchtime, House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) and House Democratic Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel (Ill.) said children’s healthcare would definitely come up this week.
“There was tremendous sentiment to move SCHIP back on the agenda right away,” Clyburn said.
Most of the provisions that Democrats say they want to change are complaints they felt were “red herrings,” but nonetheless kept coming up in debate. Chief among those is the idea that families making as much as $83,000 could get health insurance for their children. That didn’t sound good in rural areas like Rogers, Ark., where Bush mentioned it as he explained his veto.
But the $83,000 was proposed only by the state of New York, which asked to insure families with that income level. The Bush administration subsequently rejected that proposed waiver. Democrats seethed when Bush used that as an example.
“That was a somewhat Alice-in-Wonderland approach to it, but we are willing to address that, because that was not our intent,” Hoyer said.
In a letter sent to Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt on Tuesday, House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman John Dingell (D-Mich.) asked for the administration to cite the pages of the SCHIP legislation that it contends would expand eligibility to children in families earning $83,000 a year.
Dingell also disputed the administration’s claim that it would significantly raise taxes on working Americans through the proposed cigarette tax, citing government data showing that 60 percent of adult smokers have incomes above 200 percent of the poverty line.
Democrats also plan to clarify “in big, bold letters” that illegal immigrants are not eligible for the insurance, aides said.
Hoyer said that Democrats are considering addressing GOP complaints that adults are being insured at the expense of children. Bush had complained that six states are planning to spend more insuring children than adults under SCHIP.
“That is not the purpose of the program,” Bush said in his Oct. 6 radio address.
In his letter, Dingell said the “bipartisan legislation would cover no childless adult or parents under [the SCHIP bill] after 2010. Only pregnant women could be covered under [the measure].”
Republicans said Democrats are playing politics rather than trying to address their policy complaints about the bill.
“They’ve made it abundantly clear they’d rather play political games than deliver a sound bill that won’t be vetoed,” said Brian Kennedy, spokesman for House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio).
But if it’s a political game, it’s one that Democrats are confident they can win.
“We will pass this bill this week,” said Rep. John Larson (D-Conn.), vice chairman of the Democratic Caucus. “And if the president vetoes and we can’t override it, then we’ll pass it again.” |
