Eight Democrats face pressure to override SCHIP veto
By Halimah Abdullah | McClatchy Newspapers
* Posted on Wednesday, October 17, 2007
WASHINGTON — Under pressure to help override President Bush's veto, at least five of the eight House Democrats who voted initially against expanding a popular children's health insurance program now say they'll switch sides.
In behind-the-scenes conversations, Democratic leaders pressed Reps. Jim Marshall of Georgia, Betty Castor of Florida, Bob Etheridge and Mike McIntyre of North Carolina, Dan Boren of Oklahoma, Baron Hill of Indiana, Dennis Kucinich of Ohio and Gene Taylor of Mississippi to reconsider their positions on the $35 billion spending increase for the State Children's Health Insurance Program, commonly known as SCHIP.
Despite reservations, Castor, Boren, Hill, McIntyre and Etheridge said they'd support a veto override.
"After careful consideration, I have decided to vote to override the president's veto of the State Children's Health Insurance Program," Etheridge said Wednesday. "I remain concerned that a tobacco-tax increase could harm North Carolina's rural economy."
The House is to vote Thursday on whether to override Bush's veto of the legislation, which would add millions of children to the nearly 7 million who receive government-provided health insurance because their families have difficulty buying private coverage. Bush said the plan was too costly, and many observers expect his veto to stand.
A bipartisan group from the Senate Finance Committee reached out to the Democratic holdouts urging them not to be swayed by arguments that expanding the program would mean covering middle-income children and adults and illegal immigrants.
"It's now coming down to the wire and I think the pressure this time is enormous," said Thomas Mann, a political analyst at the Brookings Institution, a center-left Washington think tank. "The Democrats feel as if this issue will work clearly to their advantage."
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