Bush veto: a curse or blessing for Republicans?

Tom Curry National affairs writer • Profile • E-mail

WASHINGTON - “The problem for President Bush is that he doesn’t personalize what’s going on.”

So said Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N.J., as he appeared with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi at a press conference Tuesday to rally support for the five-year, $60 billion expansion of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP).

Bush has vowed to veto the expansion of the program.

And it looks like he'll have the support he needs to make his veto stick: in a vote Tuesday night, the House fell 19 votes short of a veto-proof majority. It takes a two-thirds vote of each house of Congress to override a veto.

The Democrats know how to “personalize what’s going on” — and that’s why the real stars of Tuesday’s Pelosi event were not Pelosi and Pallone, but Bonnie Frost and her daughter Gemma, from Baltimore, Md. who were injured in a car accident three years ago and are among the 6.6 million children and teenagers and about 600,000 adults covered by CHIP.

“I say to the president, ‘Please don’t veto this bill’” Pelosi said as she stood next to Gemma and Bonnie.

Asked how she intended to keep people mobilized to support the bill after Bush vetoes it, Pelosi said, “We’re depending on Gemma to help us do that ... And Bonnie. They’ll be on TV later today.”

In the vote Tuesday night, 45 Republicans sided with almost all of the House Democrats to pass the expansion of the program. The final tally was 265 to 160, but that was 19 votes short of what Pelosi needed.

Among the Republicans voting to expand the program were some in races rated as competitive by the non-partisan Cook Political Report : Reps. Jim Gerlach of Pennsylvania, Jim Walsh of New York, and Mark Kirk of Illinois.

Also voting against the bill were eight Democrats, including tobacco state Democrats such as Reps. Mike McIntyre and Bob Etheridge, both from North Carolina. The bill would pay for expanding insurance coverage by imposing a 61-cent increase in the 39-cent per pack federal cigarette tax, which amounts to a 156 percent tax increase

Pelosi said earlier in the day, “This fight will not end this week or next. If the president says ‘veto, I forbid ten million children in America to have health care,' this legislation will haunt him again and again and again ... We’ll be seeing Gemma again.”

But House Republican Whip Roy Blunt made the GOP argument that the bill over-expands CHIP, extending to middle-class people who could afford to pay for their own insurance.

Jibe at Pelosi's wealth
“If you’re Nancy Pelosi, almost every kid is a poor kid, compared to your kid,” Blunt cracked, alluding to Pelosi’s family wealth.

He told reporters, “If Democrats send this bill back a second time (after a veto), that actually might be good for us, because people are going to know more about what’s in the bill ... We would probably benefit from this bill going to the president multiple times.”

What Blunt and Bush object to is the expansion of CHIP to families that are middle income, or 300 percent of the federal poverty level.

For a family of four, 300 percent of the poverty level would be $61,842.

Blunt also raised the politically inflammable issue of illegal immigrants potentially getting benefits from the bill.

It has, he argued “no real test for whether people are legally in the country ... Several of our members at home find that is an important point to stress. All of the verifications (of legal residency) we think need to be in the system were taken out.”

Responding to this argument during the debate on the House floor, Rep. Jim McGovern, D- Mass., pointed to a provision in the bill that says, “Nothing in this act allows federal payment for individuals who are not legal residents.”

And McGovern lashed out at Republicans saying, “Immigrant bashing is the last bastion of the politically desperate.”

MORE FROM POLITICS

Politics Section Front

Bill Clinton meets with Dems on health care WP: How lowly lawmaker became a GOP headache Abortion could roil Senate health care debate   Obama to meet families at Fort Hood Advice for Obama: Knock heads on health care High court looks at life in prison for juveniles Israeli prime minister calls for peace talks Palin says she’s back on Twitter GOP says Dems put agenda ahead of country House Roll Call: Health care   Politics Section Front   Add Politics headlines to your news reader: