Bush again vetoes expanding children’s health insurance program
President Bush vetoed legislation Wednesday that would have expanded government-provided health insurance for children, his second slap-down of a bipartisan effort to dramatically increase funding for the popular program.
The measure would have expanded the State Children’s Health Insurance Program by $35 billion over five years and boosted its enrollment to about 10 million children.
Bush cited the same reasons that led him to veto an earlier version on Oct. 3: that the bill raised cigarette taxes and provided coverage for children of middle-class families instead of focusing on the working poor.
Democrats and some Republicans had argued that the second version addressed Bush’s major concern by capping eligibility at 300 percent of the federal poverty line, just more than $60,000 for a family of four. But most expected the president to veto the measure anyway.
Backers of the legislation failed to override Bush’s first veto and are not expected to try to override the second one.
The fate of the $5 billion-a-year program remains undecided as lawmakers try to negotiate a new five-year funding package that can win Bush’s approval or draw a veto-proof majority in the House and Senate. If they cannot do that soon, Congress is expected to pass a temporary extension that would keep the current program funded through much of next year.
Tuesday’s veto was Bush’s seventh in seven years — all but one coming since Democrats took control of Congress in January.
The joint federal-state program provides benefits to about 6 million people, mostly children.
The Associated Press and The Washington Post contributed to this report.
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