Beltway politics

When President Bush vetoed a massive expansion of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program earlier this month, Democrats complained that the White House was jeopardizing the subsidized medical coverage that millions of parents depend on for their kids.

Those condemnations continued as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi went through the process of trying to override the veto instead of negotiating a compromise reauthorization of the program. On Oct. 18, the override attempt fell 13 votes short of the required two-thirds majority, and Democrats again assailed the GOP — in news conferences and through nearly $2 million worth of TV and radio ads — for stripping health insurance from poor children.

On Thursday, House leaders held another vote on a slightly different SCHIP bill. It passed easily, but with support from two fewer Republicans than the previous version, meaning the speaker still doesn’t have the votes to override a veto. A new round of advertisements attacking incumbent House Republicans was already being prepared by Democratic special interests.

So who’s really “for the children”?

House Democrats have known for months that President Bush doesn’t support their five-year, $35 billion expansion of SCHIP, which would have offered benefits to the middle class and given millions of parents a financial incentive to drop their kids’ private health insurance in favor of coverage paid for by the public. Democrats have known the president won’t support the massive cigarette tax increases that were supposed to pay for the program but don’t pencil out over the long term. And they’ve known since last month that they didn’t have the votes to override a veto.

President Bush hinted that he’d compromise, offering to support an expansion worth $20 billion over five years.

Then, when Republicans requested a delay on the vote, which would have allowed a few days of debate and given California representatives time to return to Washington after surveying that state’s wildfires, Speaker Pelosi refused. Those attack ads had to start running Monday, after all.

“I used to think they cared about the policy. Now I think they care more about the politics,” said Rep. Ray LaHood, R-Ill.

The partisan wrangling over SCHIP isn’t about “the children.” It’s about Democrats using the issue to bloody Republicans in the buildup to 2008. That no reauthorization has yet been passed is all part of the plan.