The Democrats in the House yesterday passed another extension/expansion of the extremely popular, effective, and bipartisan S-CHIP health insurance program, very similar to the one that President Bush just vetoed:
Once again defying a veto threat from President Bush, the House on Thursday passed a bill to provide health insurance for 10 million children.
The Dems are playing this one just right politically, and it’s great to see. I mean seriously, how nice does it feel to use the media perfectly to get our point across and demonstrate just how mean, uncaring, and wrong Bush and those who support the veto are? Every time this issue is in the news, Republicans look like the bad guy – especially when they start attacking 12-year-0lds, like they did to the kid who benefits from S-CHIP and gave the Democratic Radio Address a few weeks ago.
So let him veto it again. Then send it too him again, and again, and again, so the GOP can continually be exposed. And don’t worry about the program, Congress will probably pass an extension in the current form until next summer – which would itself be a great political move:
If some version of the new bill is approved by Congress and vetoed by Mr. Bush, and if the House again sustains his veto, Democrats said they might extend the existing children’s insurance program through next summer. They could then schedule a vote on the issue in September or October, in hopes of inflicting maximum political damage on Republicans just before the 2008 elections.
If the GOP looks bad voting against SCHIP now, just wait until they do it with elections around the corner. Providing health insurance and helping elect Democrats to help more people in the future – what could be better?
