Dems attack Bush, Pearce for kid’s insurance veto

Sensing an opportunity, Democrats unleashed a barrage of harsh criticism on Wednesday against President Bush and those, including U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce, R-N.M., who supported his veto of a bill that would have expanded children’s health insurance.

“Steve Pearce doesn’t get it. As a member of Congress, he can get the best health insurance money can buy, paid for by our tax dollars,” Bill McCamley, who is running against Pearce next year, said in a news release. “But apparently he doesn’t think 11,000 New Mexico kids deserve any. This is what’s wrong with Washington, and this is what I will fight to change when I get there.”

The criticism is driven by more than politics. Democrats also hope to overturn the fourth veto of Bush’s presidency, and they have quite a bit of support from Republicans including U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici and Rep. Heather Wilson of New Mexico.

Democrats in the Senate have the Republican support needed to overturn Wednesday’s veto of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) bill, but they are about two dozen votes short of the two-thirds majority they need in the House. That means Republicans like Pearce are going to come under a great deal of pressure to break with the president. Support for Bush is at an all-time low in the newest ABC News/Washington Post poll, which also found that the SCHIP bill has the support of the majority of Democrats and Republicans across the nation.

The program previously subsidized health coverage for 6.6 million people – mostly children – who don’t qualify for Medicaid but can’t afford private insurance. The new bill would expand by the program by $35 billion to cover another 4 million children, and would fund it through an increase in the federal cigarette tax.

Bush argued that the bill is a move toward socialized medicine and Pearce, the only member of the New Mexico delegation to back the president, agreed.

“The bill vastly expands the program far beyond its original intent. This is the single largest step toward socialized medicine since HillaryCare,” Pearce said last week in a news release. “We all agree on aiding low-income children, but they have abused that bipartisanship by adding in a host of things the American people have repeatedly rejected.”

Bipartisan anger and disappointment

Domenici, in a news release sent Wednesday after the president’s veto, disagreed.

“I believe we gave the president a good package for continuing SCHIP, which is working in New Mexico to make inroads into helping many children without insurance,” Domenici said. “I had hoped the president would change his mind on a veto, and I believe his decision is a mistake. I remain hopeful that we can soon reach an agreement that will get us past the political theater on this issue and begin to build on the success of this worthwhile program.”

In a prepared statement, Wilson noted that the SCHIP program has already expired and is “running on life support” in urging her colleagues in the House to overturn the president’s veto.

There are more than 93,500 children in New Mexico without health insurance – about 25 percent of the state’s youth. The legislation would have allowed New Mexico to cover children from 133 percent to 300 percent of the federal poverty level.

Gov. Bill Richardson joined 28 other Republican and Democratic governors earlier this week in sending the president a letter urging him to sign the bill. Richardson blasted the president on Wednesday.

“President Bush’s veto is irresponsible. It is outrageous. It is simply immoral,” Richardson said in a news release sent by his presidential campaign. “Of the many shifting rationales the president has offered for vetoing this bill, one is that it will burden private insurance companies. That sums up everything we need to know about this president. Choosing between insurance companies and children should not be hard.”

U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman, U.S. Rep. Tom Udall and Lt. Gov. Diane Denish, all New Mexico Democrats, also blasted the president in news releases.

Pressure on Pearce

Democratic congressional leaders planned to put off a veto override attempt for as long as two weeks to pressure House Republicans to break with the president, the Associated Press reported. Pearce is already a target. In addition to the statement released by McCamley, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee put out a news release with the headline “Representative Steve Pearce and President Bush trying to block health insurance for 10 million kids.”

“The fight for children’s health care is not over. Rep. Steve Pearce will have another chance to show who he stands with – America’s children or George Bush,” said Jennifer Crider, DCCC communications director. “Rep. Pearce will be held accountable if he continues to stand with the president against New Mexico’s kids.”

In a video posted below and taken by the moderator of the Web site cruceslive.com, you can watch Pearce explain why he opposes the SCHIP bill. The video includes editorial commentary from cruceslive.com.