House GOP upholds Bush veto on SCHIP, union leaders vow retribution

Author: PAI

http://www.pww.org/article/view/11926/ PWW Online eXtra

WASHINGTON (PAI) — Despite strong lobbying by unions, health care groups, children’s groups and their allies, House Republicans mustered enough votes on Oct. 18 to uphold anti-worker President George Bush’s veto of children’s health care. Union leaders vowed the Republicans would receive retribution at the election polls a year from now.

The 273-156 vote to override Bush’s veto of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) fell 13 votes short of the two-thirds majority of those present and voting needed to defeat Bush. The Senate did not vote, but had passed SCHIP by a veto-proof majority, 67-29, earlier this year. The prior House vote passing SCHIP was 265-159.

“No” votes, upholding Bush’s veto, came from 154 Republicans and two Democrats: Reps. Jim Marshall (D-Ga.) and Gene Taylor (D-Miss.). Four lawmakers — two from each party — were absent.

Democratic leaders promptly vowed to start work on a new SCHIP bill. Bush called the one he killed “socialism,” waving a red herring, because it would expand the program to cover at least 10 million poor children, rather than the 6.6 million it now covers, over the next five years. Labor, its allies and the Democrats wanted to add $35 billion to the program over that time to cover all the children. Bush wanted to add only $5 billion, which would not be enough to cover kids now in SCHIP.

But the battle over SCHIP was also the first shot in the AFL-CIO’s year-plus effort to make universal affordable health care, type unspecified, the No. 1 domestic issue in the 2008 election campaign. That led AFL-CIO President John Sweeney to predict that GOPers who backed Bush’s veto would suffer at election time.

“Make no mistake: Those who stood with the president and against our children and grandchildren took an extreme position far outside the mainstream values of both their colleagues in Congress and the people. Working men and women will hold them accountable at the voting booth,” he said.

Change to Win Executive Director Greg Tarpinian agreed.

“In failing to approve SCHIP, Bush and his Republican allies … callously placed ideology over the health and well-being of millions of children. Those members of Congress who voted to deny health coverage to poor children will face another override vote next November, except this time working families will have the vote,” Tarpinian predicted.