SCHIP slips as Dems trip over message

Democratic leaders on Tuesday moved quickly to shift public attention to President Bush’s expected veto of a children’s health insurance program from a surtax to pay for the war in Iraq.

Democrats had been reveling in their good fortune, believing they had a winning issue in legislation to expand the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), which Bush is expected to veto Wednesday.

{mosads}But three senior Democrats floated a proposal to impose a surtax, a levy on a percentage of citizens’ tax bills, to fund the war in Iraq.

Republicans pounced to criticize the plan while Democratic leaders did their best to appear undeterred by the bump in the road.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) shot down the idea Tuesday afternoon. At two press conferences, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) reiterated that the proposal was “not a Democratic, not a party proposal.”

“It’s hard to believe you could pick a worse time to do something to divide the caucus than the day Democrats and Republicans come together on both an Iraq bill and in sending the children’s health bill to the president,” a Democratic leadership aide said. “The timing of this announcement made no sense.”

“[Rep. David] Obey [D-Wis.] understands that it is not going anywhere, but he sees it as an opportunity to focus the debate early on cost of the war,” another senior Democratic leadership aide said of the member behind the surtax move. “SCHIP is not going anywhere.”

Other aides wondered why Obey simply did not wait another day before bringing the suggestion to the fore.

Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) formally delivered the SCHIP bill to the White House on Tuesday, setting President Bush up to issue just the fourth veto of his presidency. The veto also will mark the latest stage in the saga of the children’s health insurance debate, which promises to carry on for at least the rest of the year.

Democratic leaders worked all day to keep the focus on SCHIP. Demonstrating frustration and conviction, Democrats accentuated differences with Bush. They seemed, in fact, to take a page from Bush’s political playbook by taking their opponent’s position to its extreme and using it against him.

Hoyer appeared with the pubic employees’ union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), which promised to hold 200 events across the country to encourage lawmakers to override Bush’s expected veto of SCHIP and the appropriations bills.

A prominent Democratic pollster, Geoff Garin of Peter D. Hart Research Associates, conducted a poll showing that 63 percent of voters side with Democrats on SCHIP when they distinguish themselves from Bush.

Hoyer said Bush would spend “billions for Baghdad, [but] a pittance for Baltimore and Bowie,” comparing what he sees as the president’s foreign versus domestic priorities and giving an alliterative nod to two cities in his home state of Maryland.

Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) handicapped the vote to override Bush’s veto, which Hoyer said could occur next week.

Clyburn said Rep. Diane Watson (D-Calif.) promised to vote to override (she previously voted present). And Democrats won over another one of their own Tuesday: Rep. Dan Boren (Okla.), who twice voted against SCHIP bills this year, said he would vote to override the veto. “While I still have reservations about the increased expansion of the program and its reliance on a dwindling revenue source, I believe after a search of my conscience that this is the right thing to do for Oklahoma and the country,” Boren said in a written statement.

If all Republicans who voted with Democrats vote to override, Clyburn will need to find 15 more Republicans.

Democratic Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel (Ill.) told reporters that Bush had an “open wallet” for Iraq and an “empty stocking” for children without healthcare.

Senate Democrats are not signaling how they plan to pursue the issue once Bush vetoes the bill, seeing a political opportunity to point out Republicans’ opposition to a bill that would help low-income children.

“This SCHIP thing — the president is hurting children. He thinks he can get away by saying, ‘We have a CR [continuing resolution].’ The CR also hurts children,” Reid said.

The Senate majority leader expressed his conviction that an adequate number of Republicans, which he put at 13, would give in to the pressure. “That puts a lot of attention on 13 Republicans,” Reid said. “It seems they should be able to come up with 13 Republicans who have enough intestinal fortitude to stand up to the president.”

Without calling him out by name, Reid singled out a Republican House member who voted against the SCHIP bill: Rep. Roscoe Bartlett (Md.). Noting that only one member of Maryland’s congressional delegation opposed the SCHIP bill — Bartlett — Reid said he could expect to be leaned on by fellow Marylanders in Congress and by Gov. Martin O’Malley (D), who on Monday became one of eight governors to announce they are taking legal action against the administration’s six-week-old restrictions on SCHIP enrollment.

It is unclear if the centrist members of the Democratic Caucus are comfortable with the sharper rhetoric and would embrace a new strategy of trying to steamroll Bush rather than cooperate.

“I’m for whatever we can do to be effective,” Rep. Tim Walz (D-Minn.) said, adding that SCHIP and Iraq cannot be treated equally. “Drawing a line in the sand doesn’t do it, that’s the way I’m approaching it.”

Rep. Brad Ellsworth (D-Ind.) said he was “wary” of a strategy that sharpened the differences with Bush and increased the level of partisanship.

Jeffrey Young contributed to this story.