Today the House failed to generate enough votes to overturn President Bush’s veto of the SCHIP State Childrens Health Insurance Program)Amendments. Never was a Veto so proper.  The bill was unambiguously designed to be vetoed so that Democrats could call Bush a “baby-hater“. The Democrats never thought this bill would pass.
Despite the Democrats exploitation of a 12 year old boy  President Bush, once again, has shown that he is a capable leader and able to enforce his policies. This will not stop the Democrats attacks, however, as less than half a percent of the American population wrote Congress to oppose the veto:

The good news is that the American people aren’t buying it. We asked you last week to send letters to Congress in support of children’s health care. So far, you’ve sent almost 198,000 letters –many, many more than we ever thought possible.

The SCHIP amendments were horrible. They called for an unnecessary increase in funding and drew funding for the increase from cigarette taxes. Democrats argued that the cigarette tax serves a double benefit in funding the bill and discouraging smoking – basically admitting that their funding center was a depreciating asset – the less people buy cigaretters – the less tax revenue is generated for SCHIP. Also the proposed Amendments unnecessarily expanded the program for families that *can* afford healthcare. The original purpose of SCHIP was to provide a program for children whose parents *could not* afford healthcare.

Moreover, the present program is being thoroughly abused by unintended and likely fraudulent recipients. As noted by House Minority Leader John Boehner, appearing on Fox News Sunday, 

“As an example, in Minnesota, 87 percent of the people enrolled in the children’s health insurance program are adults. Sixty-six percent in Wisconsin…”

That we should expland a children’s health insurance program when almost 90% of recipients in some states are in fact adults is beyond ludicrous. 

The SCHIP Amendments were weak, politically motivated, and deserved to be defeated. The resulting question is how will this affect Democrats? Will the Democratic base, fooled into thinking that Harry Reid really did want the bill passed, be so upset that the House could not overturn Bush’s veto? And if so will that lower the Democrats approval rating an provide an opening for the GOP … only time will tell …
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Or so the Democrats would have you believe. Today, George W. Bush found the political courage to exercise his veto power and stop the backdoor attempt by the Democrat Party to incrementally establish a federal health care system and expand the size and scope of the federal government.

While the motives of the Democrats may be to attempt to provide assistance to working families with children, the road to hell, as the saying goes, is paved with good intentions.  Adding $35 billion to the program, and opening the door for massive fraud - as higher income individuals, who may already have private coverage, take advantage of the free federal/state subsidy – is poor policy, and does nothing to assist the poorest Americans who were the beneficiaries of the original legislation.

What the Democrats choose not recognize is that federal health insurance programs for children, or anyone else, is not the province of the federal government. While they ballyhoo about spending for the War in Iraq, rather than on children’s health, what they fail to recognize is that making war (and paying for it) is the central and constitutionally prescribed duty of the federal government. Comparing the two expenditures is akin to berating your mailman for not cutting your lawn.

If the Democrat Party wants government-run health care, they ought to put forth the idea solely where it belongs – the nation’s 50 state houses.  The notion the federal government is not bound to performing only the duties authorized by the Constitution is not only expensive, but it undermines the entire foundations of the Republic and replaces a nation of laws with a nation of lawmakers.