Congress Vs. Bush on Child Health Care

Orlando, Florida Health Insurance
Congress Tackles Child Health Care
By Carl Hulse

The war in Iraq will take a backseat to domestic issues in Congress this week.
While the Senate wraps up its Pentagon policy debate, much of the focus will be on a children’s health insurance bill that has split Congressional Democrats and the Bush administration. The House intends to approve an expansion of the program as early as Tuesday, with the Senate hoping to vote by the end of the week as well.
President Bush has threatened to veto the legislation, which he and some conservatives in the House and Senate contend is a step toward national health insurance. They also say the program, known as the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, was meant to provide care for the working poor while the program pushed by Democrats would extend too far into the middle class.
Michael Leavitt, the secretary of Health and Human Services, stuck to that line Sunday on CNN’s “Late Edition.”
“We need to focus it on low-income children and not use this as an opportunity to move millions of more people on to government-run health insurance,” said Mr. Leavitt. “Everyone needs health insurance. But we’ve got to get down to the business of looking at the big picture, where everyone has insurance, not just children.”

But Democrats like their position on this issue. They believe that the public supports making health insurance more affordable and that many families with middle-class incomes are struggling to provide coverage and care for their children. Some Republicans in both the House and Senate are expected to support the plan.
In addition, Democrats intend to emphasize the Bush administration’s pending request for an additional $50 billion for the war in Iraq while resisting $35 billion more for children’s health over the next five years, with the money generated by a boost in tobacco taxes.
“For this president who helped rack up three trillion dollars in new debt, it is not about the spending, it is about priorities and the president has made his clear,” Representative Rahm Emanuel of Illinois, chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, said Sunday in a statement.
With the health care fight looming, Congress is putting off a wider clash with the president over spending. The federal fiscal year ends Sunday and Congress has yet to send any of a dozen spending bills to the White House. Congress is expected to pass a measure that would keep agency spending at current levels to avoid any shutdown of government services. Congress is also expected to approve an increase in the federal debt limit to prevent a default.