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The New York Times
OPINION
Overcoming a Veto and
Helping Children
EDITORIAL,
nytimes.com on the Web, September 29, 2007
Unless President Bush backs away from
his threat to veto a significant expansion of the State Children’s Health
Insurance Program, it will be incumbent on all Republicans in the House who
value health care over ideological warfare to summon the courage and vote to
override him.
The Senate approved the legislation with enough votes to overcome a veto.
It also passed the House with a hefty margin but fell 24 votes short of a
veto-proof majority. Although it will be an uphill battle, it may still be
possible to bring another two dozen House members to their senses.
Any Republicans courageous enough to defy the president on this issue will find
themselves in good company. The measure, which would increase federal
funding for the program by $35 billion over the next five years, is the product
of intense bipartisan negotiations that included prominent Republicans in the
Senate, led by Charles Grassley of Iowa and Orrin Hatch of Utah. It has
been endorsed by governors from both parties and by a wide array of
organizations, including the American Medical Association and the chief lobbying
groups for private insurance plans and for senior citizens.
The president objects to the size of the proposed funding increase, which is
seven times what he had proposed. But the costs would be fully covered by
an increase in tobacco taxes, which would bring health benefits of its own by
discouraging smoking. He complains that the bill would encourage
middle-class children to enroll in a program that was originally designed to
cover low-income youngsters. The main effort and primary impact, however, will
still be on low-income children.
Mr. Bush also warns that a substantial number of middle-class children will
simply be switched from private insurance to the public program, shifting costs
to the taxpayer. That will inevitably occur. But experts have
calculated that the president’s preferred approach — tax deductions for people
who buy their own insurance — would provide a much higher proportion of its
benefits to people who already have insurance, thus doing far less than the
Congressional measure to reduce the number of uninsured children.
Mr. Bush seems determined to use the children’s program to take a stand against
what he calls “an incremental step toward the goal of government-run health care
for every American.” He would rather sacrifice the health of uninsured
children than yield an inch of ideological ground. House Republicans ought
to take a more humane approach and override the president’s blinkered obstinacy.
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