SCHIP Bill Again Vetoed by Bush
December 13th, 2007 Posted by: Dr. Cox
Saying the legislation “moves our country’s health care system in the wrong direction,” President Bush vetoed an expansion of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) for a second time, CNN reported Dec. 12.
“Because the Congress has chosen to send me an essentially identical bill that has the same problems as the flawed bill I previously vetoed, I must veto this legislation, too,” Bush said, claiming the $35-billion expansion of the program would encourage families to trade in their private health insurance for the publicly funded SCHIP.
Democrats said the latest version of the bill had been amended to address some Republican concerns, such as access to benefits by illegal immigrants, income caps for recipient families, and barring adults from receiving benefits.
The bill has fallen just short of enough votes in Congress to override Bush’s veto, despite strong bipartisan support. The measure would largely be funded by a 61-cent-per-pack increase in the federal tobacco tax.
“What a sad day that the president would say that rather than insuring [millions of] children, ‘I don’t want to raise the cigarette tax,’ ” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.