SCHIP, Again

The New York Times tells us here that the U.S. House in Congress made the following revisions to the SCHIP bill before they voted on it yesterday…

House Democrats tried hard to address the issues raised and relentlessly hyped by Republican critics. The bill would speed up the removal of childless adults who have been enrolled in the program in a handful of states, and would reduce the enrollment of parents, even though including parents is often the best way to reach their children.

So the Dems thus turned a winning hand into a losing one in an effort to placate the Repugs here – unbelievable.

And as the Times editorial continues…

House Republicans still wanted more. They sought to eliminate all adults from the program, except pregnant women, and to base eligibility on gross income — with no ability to discount spending on child care or other vital needs. The Republicans also wanted to impose arduous documentation requirements to ensure that no illegal immigrants are enrolled, even though there is little or no evidence that any ever have been.

Memo to Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Hoyer; this is called playing hardball.

It is plain that, in typical fashion, the only way the Repugs will allow this bill to pass is if it completely gutted to the point where it is unrecognizable, and then they will claim to be the ones looking out for the health and welfare of our kids as opposed to those chicken, terra-loving, Pete-Stark-supporting lii-buuu-ruuls.

And even with all of these concessions, the Times tells us, not a single House Repug budged to help override Dubya’s veto yesterday (including Joe Pitts and Jim Saxton).

Not a one.

So, Dems, here is what you do: reinstate the provisions into this “compromise” that allow childless adults to be enrolled as well as parents, and maybe keep the restrictions on illegal immigrants since that (unsurprisingly) appears to be a non-issue anyway. And then send this back to Dubya again.

And again.

And again.

And again.

Make him veto it as many times as he chooses to in his ignorance (if the Repugs aren’t going to budge, then neither should you).

I’ll be watching, and so will the kids.