President Bush Reiterates Threat To Veto Compromise SCHIP Legislation

Main Category: Medicare / Medicaid / SCHIP
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Article Date: 02 Oct 2007 - 11:00 PDT

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HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt on Friday reiterated President Bush's threat to veto legislation that would reauthorize SCHIP and expand enrollment in the program to about 10 million children, "just hours" after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) appealed to Bush to sign the bill, CQ HealthBeat reports (Carey/Epstein, CQ HealthBeat, 9/28).

The compromise bill would provide an additional $35 billion in funding over the next five years and bring total spending on the program to $60 billion. The additional funding would be paid for by a 61-cent-per-pack increase in the tobacco tax. The House on Tuesday voted 265-159 to approve the measure, with 45 Republicans voting in favor and eight Democrats voting against the bill. The Senate on Thursday voted 67-29 to approve the legislation, with 18 of the 49 Senate Republicans voting in favor. The program expired on Sunday (Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, 9/28).

Bush likely will veto the legislation as soon as he receives it, according to USA Today (Wolf, USA Today, 10/1). Leavitt on Friday said that Bush remains committed to reauthorizing SCHIP but that the administration and bill supporters "disagree on the path."

The White House has said the bill "goes too far toward federalizing health care." Leavitt said, "Where the major disagreement comes is in how we help those who are in better-off income situations, that is to say greater than 200% of the" federal poverty level," adding, "We think there are ways to be helpful to Americans who have need, but don't think SCHIP is the way to do that" (CQ HealthBeat, 9/28). White House spokesperson Tony Fratto said that Bush will risk negative political consequences for his veto because he feels that the policy is wrong (Russell Chaddock, Christian Science Monitor, 10/1).

Bush on Saturday in his weekly radio address also renewed his veto threat, adding that Democrats would use a large increase in taxes to pay for the measure. However, Bush credited Democrats for passing an extension of the program in a continuing resolution (HJ Res 52) (Crabtree, The Hill, 9/29). The CR would provide $5 billion to fund 13 states' SCHIP programs through Nov. 16. Leavitt said Bush would sign the continuing resolution (CQ HealthBeat, 9/28).

According to the Chicago Tribune, Bush's veto threat "is part of a new tactic to try to paint his political opponents as reckless spenders, a posture that could win Bush admirers among fiscal conservatives" and allow Bush "to draw a sharper contrast between himself and Democrats" (Silva, Chicago Tribune, 9/29).

Pelosi Appeal
Pelosi at a bill signing ceremony with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Congress will take passage of the SCHIP bill "one step at a time," adding that bill supporters need 15 more Republican House votes to override Bush's veto (Johnson, CongressDaily, 9/28). Brendan Daly, spokesperson for Pelosi, said, "We hope the president will change his mind." Daly said that if a different SCHIP reauthorization bill is considered, "there are some things we will not compromise, and that's the number of kids: 10 million" (Christian Science Monitor, 10/1).

Reid said he will not compromise further on the SCHIP bill. "If the president says, 'Let's sit down and talk about it,' ... it is something that's not going to happen," Reid said, adding, "We have squeezed everything we can out of this. This is the best we can do" (CongressDaily, 9/28).

Democratic Strategy
Democratic leaders on Friday outlined a strategy to obtain a sufficient number of votes to override a veto of the SCHIP bill by highlighting the contrast between the president's request for larger funding for the Iraq war and Congress' request for smaller funding for SCHIP, the New York Times reports. The campaign will use grassroots advocacy and advertisements to target House Republicans, initially focusing on about 15 who voted against the compromise bill.

Pelosi said, "It's ironic that in the very same week that the president says he's going to veto the bill because we can't afford it, he is asking, what, for $45 billion more over and above his initial request for the war in Iraq, money that we know is being spent without accountability, without a plan for how we can leave" (Pear/Herszenhorn, New York Times, 9/29).

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Rep. Rahm Emanuel (R-Ill.) on Saturday at a news conference at the Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago said that one day's spending on the Iraq war, or $300 million, could insure 246,000 children for five years under SCHIP (Black, Chicago Tribune, 9/30).

House Minority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) responded that there is a "100% probability" that the House will be able to sustain Bush's veto but that the timing of the Iraq war spending bill and SCHIP "was not helpful" (New York Times, 9/29).

However, some House Republican leaders view the SCHIP vote "as a watershed that should compel Democrats to grant them a seat at the table on future bills" rather than a vote that will expose Republicans "to the wrath of voters," Roll Call reports. According to Roll Call, conservatives "believe the stand will repair relations with a base that had grown disenchanted with Republicans backing big new spending programs" (Dennis, Roll Call, 10/1).

Domestic Agenda
The debate over SCHIP "is only the most visible sign of the new emphasis on domestic issues," the Washington Post reports. Democratic presidential candidates "are resurrecting a push for universal health care while talking up tax policy, poverty and criminal justice," and Democratic congressional leaders are "revisiting Clinton-era battles over hate crimes and federal funding for local police forces," according to the Post.

Meanwhile, the Bush administration "is spoiling for a fight on Democratic spending," and Republican leaders "are looking for any opportunity for confrontations on illegal immigration and taxation," according to the Post. The Post reports that "[a]t the heart of it all is a central question: Thirteen years after the 1994 Republican Revolution, has the country turned to the left in search of government solutions to intractable domestic problems?" Democratic pollster Peter Hart said, "As conditions deteriorate, Americans are asking, 'Who can make it better? Where can we look for help?' And not surprisingly, government is increasingly the answer" (Weisman, Washington Post, 10/1).

Tobacco Tax
In related news, Democrats chose an "unlikely source" to fund the expansion of SCHIP by choosing to use a 156% increase in the tobacco tax, or 61 cents per pack, the AP/Contra Costa Times reports. During House and Senate debates about the SCHIP bill, the "demographics of smoking and taxation received scant attention," perhaps "because many Democrats and Republicans agree that cigarettes are the best target for tax increase if the insurance program were to grow," according to the AP/Times.

However, "a few lawmakers ... took a swing," the AP/Times reports. About 33% of U.S. adults living below the poverty level are smokers, as compared to 23.5% of those above the poverty level, according to government statistics (Babington, AP/Contra Costa Times, 10/1).

AMA
The $7 billion annually it will cost to expand SCHIP is worth the increased spending, American Medical Association board member Joseph Heyman said on Friday at the annual meeting of the Louisiana State Medical Society, the Baton Rouge Advocate reports. Heyman said, "By any measure," SCHIP "has been an extremely successful program," adding, "It's insured almost seven million children, and in spite of that, there are still eight million children uninsured in this country."

Of that eight million, two million are eligible but not enrolled, Heyman said. Heyman addressed several criticisms raised by the administration, including that an expansion of the program will lead to government-run health care and that parents will drop private insurance for their children to enroll them in SCHIP. Families who do so most likely are leaving "crummy" private health insurance plans, Heyman said. Heyman noted that AMA supports an individual insurance mandate, under which insurance coverage for low-income residents would be subsidized through tax credits (Griggs, Baton Rouge Advocate, 10/1).

Broadcast Coverage
Several broadcast programs reported on the bill. Summaries appear below.

• "Ask the White House": Acting CMS Administrator Kerry Weems on Friday discussed SCHIP in an "Ask the White House" online chat ("Ask the White House" Web site, 9/28). A transcript of the chat is available online.
  
  
• KCRW's "To the Point": The program on Monday is scheduled to include a discussion about SCHIP ("To the Point" Web site, 10/1). A broadcast schedule and additional details about the segment are available online. Audio will be available on the program's Web site after the broadcast.
  
  
• NBC's "Nightly News": The segment includes comments from Graeme Frost, an SCHIP beneficiary who spoke at a Democratic press conference and delivered the Democrats' weekly radio address, and Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) (Costello, "Nightly News," NBC, 9/29). Video of the segment is available online.
  
  
• NPR's "Weekend Edition Sunday": The segment includes comments from Pelosi; Frost; White House Press Secretary Dana Perino; Jack Pitney, a professor of American politics at Claremont McKenna College; and Collins (Rovner, "Weekend Edition Sunday," NPR, 9/30). Audio of the segment is available online.
  
  
• PBS' "NewsHour with Jim Lehrer": The segment includes comments from Pelosi; Bush; Reps. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) and Frank Pallone (D-N.J.); and Sens. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), Durbin, John Cornyn (R-Texas), Reid and Grassley (Holman, "NewsHour with Jim Lehrer," PBS, 9/28). Audio of the segment is available online. Video and a transcript will be available Monday afternoon. The program on Friday also included a discussion with syndicated columnist Mark Shields and New York Times columnist David Brooks about SCHIP and other issues (Woodruff, "NewsHour with Jim Lehrer," PBS, 9/28). Audio and a transcript of the segment are available online . Video will be available Monday afternoon.

Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.kaisernetwork.org. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at http://www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation© 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.