Bush Could Face First Veto Override

[DeepModem Mom]

LAT: Bush could face first veto override
A plan to expand a program that insures low-income children has wide support in both houses of Congress.
By Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, Times Staff Writer
July 22, 2007

WASHINGTON — As they tell the story in Texas, when George W. Bush was governor, he fought hard to put austere limits on a new federal-state plan to provide health insurance for children of low-wage workers in the state. Outmaneuvered by Democrats, he corralled the program's chief sponsor on the statehouse floor and conceded defeat, saying, "You crammed it down our throats."

Now, almost 10 years later, President Bush is threatening to veto federal legislation that would renew the same partnership — the State Children's Health Insurance Program — and expand it to cover more of the nation's nearly 9 million uninsured children.

If he follows through on that threat, Bush could face a first in his presidency: a veto override.

The bill is considered Washington's most important legislation this year on health coverage.

And Bush's fellow Republicans are worried that Democrats may do more than back the president into a corner — they could use his opposition to tar GOP incumbents in next year's elections.

If the House and Senate approve the bill and Bush vetoes it, some Republicans say, there is a good chance that many in his own party would join with Democrats in overriding him....

http://www.latimes.com/la-na-kids22jul22,0,1824081.story?coll=la-home-center

[rfranklin]

Maybe we can believe it when we see it...

I think Bush will cave in while smearing the whole program as wasteful and inefficient, unlike those wonderful private sector plans.

[acmavm]

1. Wonder if he's pen a signing statement to cover the situation. Can't

have anyone go against his imperial will.

[in_cog_ni_to]

4. Executive Order 5,000,987..."No bill coming out of the Senate is veto-proof, I, Dear Leader,

says so."

[no_hypocrisy]

5. Then the Bill should be amended to read that the Bill cannot be abridged, negated,

vacated, ignored, qualified, changed, or alterred unitarily by the executive branch of the United States. It must be executed as it is written, and if the Executive cannot determine how to enforce or execute said statute, then he can consult Congress for details.

[Hepburn]

9. You and I think the same on this...

...Bush probably will not veto the bill ~~ he will just turn it into a nothing by a signing statement.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

2. They would be stupid not to

I can see the commercials now: "This is little Tommy Sosick. His family is too poor to buy him health insurance. Tommy WOULD be getting better now, but Senator X voted to make sure he was DENIED the health care he needs to live a normal life. Senator X, like Bush, thinks it is more important to help big bad insurance companies than little children like Tommy. If you side with Tommy, vote Democratic."

[VP505]

7. I would like to

think they are not that stupid, but the way the RePublics hang together with their voting I don't know. It would make more sense for them to pass it while allowing him (Bu$H) to criticize it all he wants as long as he signs it, that way they have something positive to use for their campaigns.

[walldude]

15. LOL.. since when has the GOP allowed "stupidity" to get in their way?

As a matter of fact, it seems that the more stupid the idea, the more the GOP gets behind it.

[knitter4democracy]

3. If they won't do it for this, then they won't for anything.

The SCHIP program has been a success by every measurement. So many of those Republicans are running on family values and pro-life stances that not overriding his veto would show them for who they really are and make perfect attack ads. The Dems know it, the Republicans know it, so if they don't override his veto, they'll show who they really are.

Btw, my daughter was on Ohio's version when she was a baby (Hubby was in med school, and I stayed home with her--no insurance for me that year, but we got her on CHIP). It was practically a full-time job to get her on it, along with many during the day phone calls. How are working parents, many of whom are at jobs where they can't get personal calls, supposed to handle all of the paperwork and time? It was awful, and it constantly infuriated me. Just before we moved, the hospital network where her pediatrician worked dropped the program entirely for non-payment of claims. Thank goodness her doctor agreed to see her for free in case she needed a sick visit before we moved.

[jmowreader]

8. Come on. You know what Family Values and Pro Life mean...

"Family Values" means "antigay."

"Pro-life" means "anti-abortion."

It certainly can't mean anything to do with lives or families, because the most vicious "family values" types have all voted against every piece of legislation that could possibly help your family, and every "pro-life" person who leans Protestant is totally in favor of the Iraq War.

[SoonerPride]

11. "pro life" = "pro death penalty"

never did understand that one

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

14. "pro-life" equals "pro-fetus"

Premarital sex is wrong, and the woman's getting pregnant is God's punishment for her actions. I actually heard some fundie say that.

Once a fetus leaves the womb the "pro-lifers" could give a shit about the child's well being. Homelessness, medical care, education -- those are socialist programs. The only thing that counts is getting the child to leave the womb.

The overwhelming support of the death penalty, guns, war and domestic terrorism (bombing Planned Parenthood facilities) is directly in conflict with a "pro-life" agenda. It's interesting to watch them twist themselves into pretzels trying to reconcile the two.

[knitter4democracy]

22. They want those "socialist" programs to be church-run.

Oh, and I can do one better. I was told by a pro-lifer in college (went to a small evangelical school) in our philosophy class that, if a woman dies because of a back-alley abortion, that she deserved it and that she was going to hell. The entire class was shocked. Then, he started yelling at everyone about how we all said we were pro-life but didn't march, didn't protest at clinics, and then ran out of the room to calm down. I let him have it, and he left the class early.

As for socialist programs, they don't want the government doing them (something I never understood) and instead the churches, even if they aren't trying to convert anyone (Meals on Wheels, that sort of thing). That's why they're against the government doing it--they think it's their job.

[knitter4democracy]

21. Not to many of the voters, though.

Many of the pro-lifers I know are honestly and truly as pro-life as they can realistically be. I know one who's fostered 14 kids and has now adopted the last one's daughter. She's also massively against the war. Most of them have been lied to for years about conservative values and only now are starting to figure it out. Frankly, I'm a lot more okay with that than the apathetic non-voters who just don't care enough to make a decision and stand in a line.

[rasputin1952]

6. Children's Health Care is one of those issues that brings virtually all

of American citizens together. Only die-hard RW nuts would allow children to be taken off the health care rolls. Looking at this objectively, by removing children from the protection of health care, he would essentially condemn some of them to death.

This is an issue that is high on the radar, and bush, if he vetoes this, will go even further down the road to being the most abysmal administration this nation has ever seen.

[dkofos]

10. I have full confidence in the Dem leadership to screw this up too.

[cascadiance]

12. Harry better make sure the DLC Dems are on board...

It might just take one or two votes against the bill by some of these corrupt corporate Dems, and then if a bunch of Republicans do vote for the override that comes up one or two votes short, then the Republicans will heavily point fingers back at the Dems as being the party that screwed up votes like this.

[dkofos]

13. I'm sure harry has enough dirt to keep them in line. They are dlc!

[pinto]

16. This is so obviously a great investment in our national future. A good one

to coalesce a bipartisan override.

:kick:

[LordJFT]

17. bush won't actually veto it if there are enough votes to override

he won't face the embarrassment of vetoing something that will be overridden, he'll change his tune just like he did with the veterans' bill

[JacquesMolay]

18. He said it's against his 'principles'. The same principles that continue to fatten ...

... the fatcats in the military-industrial complex, that continue to pad the wallets of his buddies at the country club and in the oil industry. His principles are 'to the rich, theirs, to the rest, what they can scrape up."

[Disturbed]

19. " It's against his 'principles" to help poor children.

Yes, that is the real Busholini. Too bad the US Corp Media won't make that a screamin' headline.

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

20. God I Hope That's True. It Would Be About Time A Needed Piece Of Legislation Wasn't Blocked.

It's actually quite a pleasant surprise to read that. Even if they're doing it for the wrong reasons, at least they might do it. For a bill like this, that's good enough for me.