Bush Vetoes Children's Health Insurance Program Expansion

As promised, Bush vetoed the expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) earlier today. As the AP notes (in an article with a glaring typo in its title), "The White House sought as little attention as possible, with the president wielding his veto behind closed doors without any fanfare or news coverage."

Yeah. Duh. This is one of the more hardheaded and heartless things that the Administration has done yet, so it's not surprising that Bush would try to slip it in under the radar. Just tell that, though, to the 3.3 million kids who would have been added to SCHIP under the expansion, and to the 6.6 million who currently rely on the program... which, by they way, has already expired (as of the end of September).

The Senate has enough votes to override the veto, and the House isn't too hopelessly far off. Let's just hope that some of these Republicans still holding out can grow a heart and/or some balls and stand up to the President on this one.

More like this

Congress appears to be on track for another major standoff with President Bush. The Washington Post reports today that the House and Senate have reconciled their differing versions of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP or CHIP) expansion and will be voting on it this coming week…
I wouldn't normally just publish a press release here, but in this case, 1) it's an important issue, the Republican squashing of the SCHIP bill to reauthorize a health insurance program for poor children, 2) it's about Michele Bachmann, a truly contemptible creature of the far right wing, and 3) my…
I always find it surprising that something as obvious as the need to provide health coverage to children can be so controversial. In 2004, Arlene Wohlgemuth, the Republican running against Democrat Chet Edwards for US Congressional District 17 in Texas, made as a cornerstone of her campaign her…
Here's some good news from Congress, where the House of Representatives yesterday passed HR 3162, the Children's Health and Medicare Protection Act of 2007. This is the expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP or SCHIP) that I've been blogging about recently. For more…

Just tell the kids that they can't get medical coverage because we must remove weapons of mass destruction (nope), bring freedom to the Iraqis (is that what we did), fix the terrorism problem and civil war that we created (now we're onto it). Not to mention, cover our asses after the latest Blackwater trouble.

He's the decider, and he had to deciderate one way or another, so he decided to leave the health deciding up to the childrens. Who are learning.

When is the override attempt of Shrub's latest veto in the Senate? I would like to watch it on C-Span 2.

By Phillip A Reed… (not verified) on 09 Oct 2007 #permalink