Bush vs. Congress: Stage set for first veto override?

President Bush counts on similar loyalty from Republicans in the House with his health care veto. Bush is shown here at Andrews Air Force Base after returning from Pennsylvania, where he insisted that the poorest children should be served first. AP Photo by Caleb Jones

by Mark Silva

Setting the stage for a politically charged clash with Congress, President Bush Wednesday vetoed a popular bill to expand federally funded children's health insurance—and this time, he faces significant resistance from within his own party as well.

As with his rejection of timelines for troop withdrawals from Iraq, the president used his veto to take a politically unpopular stance. Voters' support for billions of dollars in additional spending on children's health insurance runs even stronger, polls suggest, than public support for ending the war in Iraq.

Yet unlike his veto of troop withdrawals, Bush may not be able to sustain his rejection of the health care measure, with Democratic leaders casting the battle as a conflict between the president and children.

"The lines are seldom so clear on an issue," said Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.). "The president is wrong. The Congress is right.... The Congress is right to fight like hell to override this veto. That's just what we will do."

And Democrats aren't the only ones rallying to override the veto. Many Republicans are worried that Bush's defiant stand could imperil them in the 2008 election if the Democrats try to portray the GOP as callously indifferent to kids' health, a message they have already begun disseminating.

The Senate passed the expansion in the State Children's Health Insurance Program, or SCHIP, by a veto-proof margin, while the House, with a 265-159 vote, fell a little short of the necessary two-thirds majority. Now some GOP members are trying to change their fellow Republicans' minds.

"I'm going to be making some of those phone calls to the House of Representatives to find the votes to override," said Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), one of 18 Senate Republicans supporting the bill. "It's disappointing to me that the president vetoed this bipartisan bill."

See the rest of the story in today's Tribune:

A veto is the only appropriate response, the president and his allies insist, to a measure that seeks an additional $35 billion for government-financed health insurance that could be extended to many middle-class children. Bush, in his veto message, said the bill "would move health care in this country in the wrong direction."

"The policies of the government ought to be, help poor children and to focus on poor children," Bush said Wednesday in Lancaster, Pa. "The policies of the government ought to be, help people find private insurance, not federal coverage. And that's where the philosophical divide comes in."

The measure would offer health insurance for children of families with incomes of up to three times the federal poverty level, or $62,000 for a family of four. Under the program, states pay 25 percent of the costs, the federal government the rest.

Seven states already have extended coverage to that level under SCHIP, which was first enacted in 1998, and two states – New Jersey and New York – have taken it beyond. New Jersey has raised eligibility for coverage to families earning up to 350 percent of poverty; New York wants to extend it to families at 400 percent – about $83,000 for a family of four.

With 6.6 million children already covered under SCHIP—which now covers children in families up to twice the poverty level—congressional supporters say that an additional 3.8 million children could find coverage under the bill vetoed by the president.

The Bush administration, which has attempted to limit eligibility under the existing law to families at 250 percent of poverty, insists that the program should make the "neediest" children its priority.

"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, fulfilling a pledge that he had made for weeks. "I hope we can now work together to produce a good bill that puts poorer children first."

The issue has spilled into the 2008 presidential election campaign, with Democrats chiding the president for his veto and Republicans backing Bush. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) called the cigarette tax boost that would fund the bill "a phony smoke-and-mirrors way of paying for it."

This is only the fourth veto for Bush during two terms as president. He twice vetoed federal spending for new lines of embryonic stem-cell research. Earlier this year, he vetoed a $120 billion war bill that included timelines for troop withdrawals, forcing Congress to give him a funding bill without restrictions.

Public support for the SCHIP bill apparently runs strong, with a recent Washington Post/ABC News poll showing that 72 percent of Americans said they support $35 billion in new federal spending for health care for children. That runs higher than the 60 percent who call the Iraq war a mistake in some polls.

MoveOn.org, a political action committee that has made its mark in the debate over the war, plans to sponsor more than 200 rallies across the country Thursday to pressure members of Congress to override the veto.

While Democratic Senate leaders are confident of a veto override, House leaders are more doubtful. "Now it's up to Congress to speak," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.). "As I understand, we need about 15 courageous [House] Republicans to vote with us."

The health care industry also is pressing for an override, which the American Medical Association calls "vital to protect low-income children whose parents work hard but aren't able to afford health insurance."

Daniel Smith, president of he American Cancer Society's Cancer Action Network, added, "The president today sided with the tobacco industry instead of America's children. ''

Ed Gillespie, counselor to the president, insists Bush still wants a compromise that covers more poor children, and not the middle class.

"I assume that the Congress will move quickly to hold a vote on overriding or sustaining that veto," Gillespie said. "Then after the Democrats do that, we'll determine where they're willing to go."