House Republicans’ vote on children’s health insurance will be hard to defend

I guess the spin of the 12 year old sick boy to explain the problem got to this reporter. I disagree with him completely and think that the Republicans in the house who sided with the president against a tax happy Congress will be vindicated as champions of the poor at the end of the day. This tax to pay for this bill will affect the poor and middle class more than any other group. Rich people won't pay for this plan, poor people will. Hopefully Mr. Broder will recognize that after the Veto.

By DAVID BRODER

WASHINGTON | The spectacle Tuesday of 151 House Republicans voting in lockstep with the White House against expansion of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) was one of the more remarkable sights of the year. Rarely do you see so many politicians putting their careers in jeopardy.

The bill they opposed, at the urging of President Bush, commands healthy majorities in both the House and Senate but is headed for a veto because Bush objects to expanding this form of safety net for the children of the working poor. He has staked out that ground on his own, ignoring or rejecting the pleas of conservative senators such as Chuck Grassley and Orrin Hatch, who helped shape the compromise that the House approved and that the Senate endorsed.

SCHIP has been one of the most successful health-care measures created in the past decade. It was started in 1997 with support from both parties, in order to insure children in families with incomes too high to receive Medicaid but without the wealth to afford private insurance.