The Charlotte Observer
Friday, October 19, 2007
www.charlotte.com

EDITORIALS

Do the right thing
President and Congress still have chance on SCHIP

As expected, Congress failed to override President Bush's unwise veto of the State Children's Health Insurance Program. The override fell 13 short of the 286 House votes needed.

That means just over a dozen members of Congress stood in the way of ensuring medical coverage for millions of children whose families can't afford it. Among those naysayers were 10 from the Carolinas: Reps. Howard Coble, Virginia Foxx, Robin Hayes, Walter Jones, Patrick McHenry and Sue Myrick of North Carolina; Gresham Barrett, Henry Brown, Bob Inglis and Joe Wilson of South Carolina. They have to answer for those votes to the public.

This vote does not end the matter. Congress and the president still have a chance to do the right thing. Now that his veto has been sustained, President Bush has assigned three top advisers to try to negotiate a new deal with Congress.

The president had the opportunity to negotiate with Congress on this issue before, but didn't. Instead, he stood pat on a plan even conservative Republicans said wouldn't provide enough coverage for children currently receiving aid. More than 800,000 would be dropped under his plan, and more than 2 million others who qualify would remain uninsured. And while Democrats and Republicans hashed out the bipartisan bill he vetoed, the president pledged not to budge and held the bill hostage to fears about socialized medicine that are hype, not reality.

Separating fact from fiction on the issue has been difficult. Even two N.C. Democrats opposed it, buying into the idea that the state would be harmed by the method of paying for the SCHIP expansion -- an increase in the cigarette tax. But as N.C. Gov. Mike Easley pointed out, the benefits of SCHIP more than mitigate the costs to the state of the cigarette tax. To their credit, Reps. Bob Etheridge and Mike McIntyre changed course and voted Thursday to override the veto.

It wasn't enough. Still, SCHIP enjoys enormous bipartisan support, and for good reason: It provides medical care for low-income children who otherwise would go without because their families make too much to receive Medicaid and too little to afford private insurance.

Now the good SCHIP has done for millions of children, thousands in North Carolina, is in jeopardy. If there's no agreement, Congress will likely provide temporary renewals when the bill lapses next month. But ensuring coverage for these low-income children requires more that stopgaps.

White House Press Secretary Dana Perrino proudly claimed after Thursday's vote that "we won this round on SCHIP." Her words echo the shameful gamesmanship at work on this issue.

It's time to stop playing politics. The president's advisers say they want to find common ground with Congress on this matter. Given that the vetoed bill was bipartisan, they don't have to look far. We urge them to get to work today.