SCHIP: Round Two

Members of the California delegation had asked that the debate on SCHIP: Round Two be delayed until Tuesday so that they could be with constituents while the state burns. Steny Hoyer is having none of that as he says that there is no time left. Really? Democrats put off the override vote for two whole weeks so that they and their allies in the 527 media could demagogue on the issue but now there isn't enough time...

From debate on the House floor this morning:

HOYER: "...the time left to us is very short and to not proceed today and to push this off to next week then pushes off to the week following when the Senate can consider this legislation which then pushes off to the last week we'll be here for Presidential action. All of that is a constraint on the flexibility of scheduling."

HOYER: "I don't know that there is something happening today that won't be true tomorrow. I do know that there is concern about proceeding on the SCHIP bill. I have made it clear, in August I made it clear that we have an agenda to accomplish. If we were meeting Friday, that might be a different story, but we're not meeting Friday. So tomorrow was available, Saturday is available, Sunday, Monday are available. I believe that Members ought to be with their constituents. I don't believe they're going out there to fight the fire. They're going out there to be with their constituents..."

SESSIONS: "Will the gentleman yield?"

HOYER: "No, --- you can 'ohhh and ahhh' - my point I think is clear. My point is clear that the objectives of the members that are not here are understandable and appropriate, but what is not appropriate is for me to be put in the position or anybody who schedules on either side of the aisle, to be put in the position to have our legislative process stopped when we essentially only have a few hours left to go and important legislation to consider."

Perhaps there would have been more time to get this right if Democrats weren't busy playing politics with the healthcare of 6.7 million children.

Democrats aren't interested in a serious debate of the issue nor are they concerned with working towards a solution that is acceptable and fiscally responsible.

By the way, the President has already signalled that this latest "compromise" is going to face another veto. But Democrats don't care about getting this right...they just want to steamroll on ahead with risking the SCHIP program altogether. If Democrats can't figure out that they need to seriously compromise on this issue and get back to the basics of the intention of this program (to provide health insurance options for poor children who need it) when John Kasich (he's a Republican!) introduced it, then Democrats will be held responsible for shutting this program down. Imagine those ads for a minute...

UPDATE: I asked one of my House sources about the veto and this is the response:

We are confident that, until a truly bipartisan bill is introduced, House GOP will maintain enough votes to uphold the President's veto.

Here is what I said over at Wide Open on the so-called "compromise" bill:

It doesn't matter if the "cost" was reduced by $15 billion...the Democrats are not putting forward a way to pay for it.

Republicans proposed fully funding the current program and then offering tax credits to those in this expansion... The Republican proposal also involved a "federalism initiative" that would have encouraged states to get serious about enacting reform to save more money so more poor kids could be covered.

How was this proposal greeted by Demcorats who are in it for The Children?

It was "dead on arrival"...

I would be disappointed if the White House and/or House Republicans went along with this, but would not be surprised.

Who will suffer? It sure won't be the boomer yuppies and the politicans who love them that are pushing this bill... It will be the very kids who this legislation was supposedly designed to protect that will be footing the bill. Democrats (and their few RINO allies) are, once again, pandering for votes and not caring at all about the long-term ramifications of doing so...

And I like what Dave Stacy had to say in response:

People making $40k-$60k don't want a government handout, they want a reasonable crack at private health insurance without worrying about preexisting conditions, and endlessly rising premiums.

Expansion of medical savings accounts, loosen up regs of associations for pooling large groups of people, loosening up regulations overall of what must be covered, and a trend toward high deductible catastrophic insurance would all help more than handouts that are "financed" by taxing smokers.

Let's solve the problem, and not just throw money at it.

Emphasis added, because let's face it: That is the whole point...

UPDATE 2: AP News Alert:

WASHINGTON (AP) The House has passed a revised children's health bill, but not by a margin that would override a veto by President Bush.

I think my House source summed it up best:

[L]ike i said...

Today's SCHIP vote breakdown in the House:
Vote total: 265-142
Democrat breakdown: 222-1
Republican breakdown: 43-141

Not one single Republican switched their vote today to vote for this latest iteration of the SCHIP bill. The only change on the Republican side was that of Vern Ehlers (R-Michigan) who had previously supported this bill, but today voted against it.

The Democrats did not secure the required two-thirds to override a presidential veto.

14 of our members were not here - they would have voted against this bill if they were.

The only Democrat voting no was Jim Marshall (D-Georgia).

This version of SCHIP will not get a veto override either. The Democrats are playing games with the healthcare of 6.7 million children.