House Democrats yesterday failed a second time to override President Bush’s veto of a children’s health-insurance bill, repeating a defeat from last session that the party sees as a winning election-year issue.
The 260-152 vote fell 15 votes shy of the two-thirds majority needed to succeed, with 42 Republicans supporting the veto override, and a single Democrat, Rep. Jim Marshall of Georgia, opposing it.
The outcome was nearly identical to the failed October vote to overturn Mr. Bush’s first veto of a $35 billion expansion of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP).
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, California Democrat, said the downturn in the U.S. economy justified revisiting the bill and made it more urgent.
“Let’s remove all doubt in anyone’s mind that this Congress of the United States understands our responsibility to the children, understands our responsibility to the future,” she said during the floor debate. “I hope the message from this Congress will be that we care about the children and we care about enough about them that we will vote to override this veto.”
The defeat gave Democrats another opportunity to portray Republicans as mean-spirited for opposing the expansion of the program, which currently provides health coverage for about 6 million poor children whose families earn too much money to qualify for Medicaid.
Democrats want to pay for coverage of about 4 million more children.
Republicans say the bill costs too much and would give government-paid health insurance to illegal aliens, adults and middle-class families who could pay their own insurance premiums.
They said the veto-override vote was a mere political stunt, that Democrats knew the outcome was preordained and that the exercise was unnecessary because Congress last month overwhelmingly approved legislation to fund the program until March 2009.
“We will not stand for this bait-and-switch tactic that is aimed more at paving the way to government-run health care than making sure poor kids have access to adequate care,” said House Minority Whip Roy Blunt, Missouri Republican. “This is our eighth vote to drastically expand SCHIP, and all we’ve seen different on the House floor are different talking points being used to sell the same bad policy.”
The issue likely will resurface again this election-year session.
Families USA, a group advocating universal health care, responded to the vote by urging House members to keep putting the legislation back on the agenda.
“This fight is far from over,” said Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA.
Mrs. Pelosi today is scheduled to address the group’s conference in Washington.
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