Bush vetoes expansion of kids' health insurance program
Story Highlights
President nixes bill before trip to Pennsylvania to discuss budget
Legislation would double State Children's Health Insurance Program
Bill would add $35 billion to program over five years
Margin in Senate enough for override; House lacks two-thirds majority needed WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush on Wednesday vetoed legislation expanding a children's health insurance program by $35 billion over five years.
Kids pull wagons full of petitions this week asking President Bush not to veto insurance legislation.
Bush exercised the veto at 10 a.m. ET before leaving the White House for a trip to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, to discuss the federal budget and taxes.
Congress sent the legislation expanding the State Children's Health Insurance Program, or SCHIP, to the White House on Tuesday.
The Senate voted 67-29 Thursday to expand the program. Bush has said it's a step toward universal coverage.
It appears Congress lacks the votes to overturn Bush's veto. Though 67 votes in the 100-person Senate would suffice to override a veto, the 265-159 vote on September 25 in the House version is short of the two-thirds majority needed.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Maryland, said Tuesday that he won't schedule the override vote on SCHIP until next week or later. There is no time limit in the House of Representatives on when to bring the bill up again.
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Under the legislation, the program would double -- from 4 million to 8 million -- the number of children covered.
In the Senate, 18 Republicans joined all of the Democrats in voting to expand the program from its annual budget of $5 billion to $12 billion for the next five years.
Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah was among those Republicans who split from the president. "It's very difficult for me to be against a man I care so much for," he told his colleagues on the Senate floor before the vote. "It's unfortunate that the president has chosen to be on what, to me, is clearly the wrong side of this issue."
A Washington Post-ABC News poll conducted September 27-30 found 72 percent of those surveyed support an increase in spending on the program, with 25 percent opposed. The poll's margin of error was 3 percentage points.
Bush and many Republicans contend the program's original intent would be changed under the bill.
The program gives coverage to parents who make too much to qualify for Medicaid but not enough to buy private insurance for their children. Critics have said their concern is that parents might be prompted to drop private coverage for their children to get cheaper coverage under the bill.
The veto is the fourth of Bush's presidency. After not using his veto power at all during his first four years, the president has vetoed three other bills in his second term: two on stem-cell research legislation and one on a war funding bill with a Democratic timetable for withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq. E-mail to a friend
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