Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2007--Veto Message fro the President of the United States

Floor Speech

CHILDREN'S HEALTH INSURANCE PROGRAM REAUTHORIZATION ACT OF 2007--VETO MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES (H. DOC. NO. 110-80) -- (House of Representatives - December 12, 2007)

Ms. PELOSI. I thank the gentleman for yielding.

I thank Mr. Hoyer for his leadership on this very important legislation. He has worked very hard to try to achieve a level of bipartisanship on this legislation that could override the President's veto. In the United States Senate, there is a substantial bipartisan majority large enough to override the President's veto. I hope that we could achieve that in this House. We are not going to take up that vote tonight, as has been indicated by Mr. Hoyer. That debate and that vote will take place on January 23.

It is just very interesting to hear the reasons why the President of the United States said veto to the children of America. Veto in Latin: I forbid. I forbid the children of America, the children of working families who play by the rules and want the best for their children, who are struggling to make ends meet and who need health care and the health care that keeps them in the workforce and off of welfare and off of Medicaid.

Madam Speaker, it is particularly interesting to hear in this debate on the omnibus bill where there is talk of hundreds of billions of dollars more for the war in Iraq. For 40 days in Iraq, we can insure 10 million children in America; 40 days in Iraq, 10 million children in America. This is not an issue. This is a value. This is an ethic of the American people. The Democrats and Republicans, people of no party affiliation, everybody cares about the children of America. Over 80 percent of the American people support the SCHIP expansion that we want to do to double the number of children.

So when the President says we have not met his objections, he is moving the goal post. In his first veto message, he said he is concerned about the fact that people making $80,000 would be eligible for SCHIP. Not so. The only way they could be eligible is if the President of the United States himself gave them a waiver. The President has given waivers to families making 300 percent of poverty. The President himself has given that waiver. And now he is complaining about that level of income for families, hardworking families to receive SCHIP.

The President said he is concerned that there are still adults in the program. The Democratic response, bipartisan, strong, with 45 Republican votes, said that the adults would be phased out. The reason some of them are in there in the first place is that in order to get the children into the program, Governors had thought that it would be important to bring families into the program, and the President of the United States, President Bush's policy allowed that to happen. So he is turning his back on his own policy. He is turning his back on these children by saying their families should be off of SCHIP.

So when the President says he is opposed to the bill because it raises taxes, then we get to the heart of the matter. This bill is paid by an increase in the cigarette tax, and this is really why the President is vetoing the bill. The President is saying that rather than raise the cigarette tax, he would prefer to prevent an additional 5 million children in our country from getting access to quality health care.

The President has also said in other comments about this legislation, everyone in America has access to health care; they can just go to the emergency room. That was probably one of the most ill-informed, with stiff competition for that honor, but nonetheless probably one of the most ill-informed statements that could ever be made by anyone dealing with public policy and access to health care.

So again, I think all the Members of Congress who voted for this in a very strong bipartisan way in the House and the Senate can take great pride in setting a high watermark for what this Congress should be doing for children of working families in America.

I salute Mr. Hoyer, Mr. Dingell, Mr. Rangel, Mr. Pallone, Mr. Stark for their exceptional leadership. I also salute Mr. LaHood for what he tried to do to bring bipartisanship to all of this. I commend Senator Grassley and Senator Hatch for their courageous leadership in the Senate, in leading the way to a veto-proof majority of Democrats and Republicans in the United States Senate.

Whether you are talking about Easter Seals or the March of Dimes, the Association of Catholic Hospitals, AARP, AMA to YWCA, to everything alphabetically in between, everyone supports SCHIP except the President of the United States and those in this body who will side with him on this vote.

What a sad day. What a sad day that the President would say, rather than insuring 5 million children, I don't want to raise the cigarette tax. What a sad day when we would spend in 40 days in Iraq what it takes to insure 10 million children in America for 1 year. But we are not going to let this veto stand. We will act upon it and we will continue to fight the fight until 10 million children at a minimum in America have access to quality health care under the SCHIP program. It is the wish of the Governors.

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