President Bush’s veto Wednesday of a children’s health insurance bill drew a strong negative reaction from two local Democratic congressman.
Approved in Congress with strong bipartisan support, the bill would have expanded SCHIP – the State Children’s Health Insurance Program – to include more than 10 million uninsured children, adding about 3.4 million children to the program.
“If this bill were enacted, one out of every three children moving onto government coverage would be moving from private coverage,” the president said in a statement to the House explaining his veto. “The bill also does not fully fund all its new spending, obscuring the true cost of the bill’s expansion of SCHIP, and it raises taxes on working Americans.”
Texas District 9 Congressman Al Green, D-Houston, was quick to offer an alternative view:
“We live in a country where nearly one out of every 110 people is a millionaire. Unfortunately, this is the same country where more than one out of every 10 children lacks health insurance coverage. We have lost our way,” Green said in a statement Wednesday afternoon. “We live in a country where we could insure 10 million needy children, with the money spent in 41 days on the Iraq war.”
District 22 Congressman Nick Lampson, D-Stafford, said he would work to override President Bush’s veto.
“President Bush’s veto deprived 10 million low-income children, 500,000 in Texas, from having health care coverage and deprived those children of basic check-ups, vaccines, and medical care,” Lampson said in a statement. “The cost of this veto will not only be shouldered by children fighting illness without proper care; it will also be passed to taxpayers who will bear the expense for emergency room visits.
“Despite the veto… I will continue to work for children to have health care with my Democrat and Republican colleagues,” Lampson said. “Hopefully, we can add to the majority of those of us in Congress who want children to be healthy and override the veto.”
U.S. Sen John Cornyn, who was one of only 31 senators to vote against the bill, told the Associated Press it represented a 140% spending increase on children’s health insurance, at a time when many of his constituents fell the federal government “has lost its way” when it comes to spending.
Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson voted in favor of the children’s health insurance bill, but struck a far more conciliatory note than Lampson or Green.
Bush expressed “valid concerns about expanding Schip,” she told the New York Times, but the president ought to “sit down with Congress so that we can continue the SCHIP program within the scope of its original mission.”
Green was uncompromising.
“Texas has been among the worst states in the nation in terms of insuring low-income children. We have lost our way…and gone from a state that was once a leader in enrollment to one that has neglected children,” he said. “Texas SCHIP enrollment fell from 500,000 in 2003 to 300,000 in 2006, while overall uninsured rates continued to rise. This legislation would aid Texas in our efforts to recapture those children in our state who are eligible for SCHIP but not currently enrolled in the program.”
Approved in Congress with strong bipartisan support, the bill would have expanded SCHIP – the State Children’s Health Insurance Program – to include more than 10 million uninsured children, adding about 3.4 million children to the program.
“If this bill were enacted, one out of every three children moving onto government coverage would be moving from private coverage,” the president said in a statement to the House explaining his veto. “The bill also does not fully fund all its new spending, obscuring the true cost of the bill’s expansion of SCHIP, and it raises taxes on working Americans.”
Texas District 9 Congressman Al Green, D-Houston, was quick to offer an alternative view:
“We live in a country where nearly one out of every 110 people is a millionaire. Unfortunately, this is the same country where more than one out of every 10 children lacks health insurance coverage. We have lost our way,” Green said in a statement Wednesday afternoon. “We live in a country where we could insure 10 million needy children, with the money spent in 41 days on the Iraq war.”
