Attack On SCHIP

Expansion of the State Childrens' Health Insurance Program has been vetoed by President Bush, who decried the cost of the program and, in an appearance before the Lancaster (Pa.) Chamber of Commerce and Industry, declared "the intent of the program was to focus on poor children, not adults and families earning $83,000 a year. That doesn't sound poor to me." The bill had passed in the Senate with a vote of 67 to 29, a veto-proof margin. However, it passed the House only by 265 to 159, with the switch of approximately 18 Representatives needed to override a Presidential veto.

There is a chance the veto of the SCHIP Reauthorization Act will be upended. The President's action is extremely unpopular with the nation's governors and the states of California, New York, and New Jersey have announced plans to file suit. Republican legislators are keenly aware of the political danger they face if the President's veto is allowed to stand.

Hopefully, the bill will pass over Mr. Bush's veto and several million more children whose parents are unable to obtain health insurance for them through employment or Medicaid will be covered. If not, however, supporters of the President's values should face attack ads whose potential is unlimited. Certainly, the lack of concern for children will be emphasized, but MainStreetLiberal would suggest that Democrats add something else, such as...

"(insert name of member of Congress) agrees with President Bush that we don't have to provide 8,000,000 uninsured children with the health care they so desperately need. (Member of Congress) says that we don't need to provide health care to children from middle-class families. But (insert name of member of Congress) doesn't agree. He (or she) knows that middle-class isn't rich, and that middle-class children, as well as poor children, deserve to be healthy."