As President Bush vetoed a bipartisan children’s health insurance bill Wednesday, House Democrats plotted ways to override it, giving themselves more than two weeks to round up the necessary votes.
Instead of holding an override vote when they received Bush’s veto message in the early afternoon, Democratic House leaders announced they plan to postpone the vote until Oct. 18.
The strategy, Democratic aides said, will allow extra time to pressure the dozen or so House Republicans they need to beat the veto, although GOP leaders said they are confident their rank and file can’t be coerced into supporting the bill.
“It’s the same bill we voted against,” said Rep. Henry E. Brown Jr., R-S.C.
Bush rejected legislation that would increase spending for the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, known as SCHIP, from $25 billion to $60 billion over five years. Bush and Republican opponents say the legislation, which would be funded by a 61-cent increase in the cigarette tax, would expand eligibility to children from middle-income families and is a step toward socialized medicine.
The president has proposed a much more modest expansion of the program that would increase spending by $5 billion over five years.
“Because the Congress has chosen to send me a bill that moves our health care system in the wrong direction, I must veto it,” Bush said in his veto message. “I hope we can now work together to produce a good bill that puts poorer children first, that moves adults out of a program meant for children and that does not abandon the bipartisan tradition that marked the enactment of SCHIP.”
A compromise bill might indeed be in the works, but Democrats first want an opportunity to either win a major political victory by overriding a veto, or at least make Republicans look bad while trying.
Democrats have continued to criticize Bush and the GOP for rejecting a program aimed at helping children.
Republicans are also in a politically awkward position because there is strong GOP support for the bill. The legislation is authored by senior Republican lawmakers, including Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah.
Hatch said he believes “there is the potential” for the House to come up with enough votes to override the veto, particularly if constituents pressure Republican lawmakers to change their votes. If not, Hatch said, “we’ll have to start all over again” with a new bill.
