"A growing body of professional literature shows that when government health insurance expands, up to 60 percent of existing private coverage is 'crowded out,'" said a Heritage Foundation report last week. The program's $35 billion expansion is supposed to be financed by a 61-cent cigarette tax increase, but financing abruptly is scheduled to fall 72 percent halfway through 2012. With private insurance probably no longer available, Congress would then have no choice but to provide additional funding.
Bush's inevitable veto will face a certain override in the Senate, where supposedly conservative Republican graybeards have defected. Orrin Hatch is in another partnership with his friend, Ted Kennedy. Chuck Grassley, ranking GOP member on the Finance Committee, again has drifted leftward.
In the House, Republican Rep. Ray LaHood has worked closely with his fellow Illinoisan, House Democratic Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel, to round up Republican votes for a veto override. But LaHood and his allies were silent during Wednesday's House GOP conference. Rep. Paul Ryan, the top Budget Committee Republican, declared: "This is not a back door to get socialized medicine. They went straight to the front door." A headcount showed no more than 57 Republicans prepared to override Bush -- probably 11 short of what is needed.
Democrats flinched at giving Republicans a hard choice: override the veto or end the existing SCHIP program. Instead, funding is being extended by a separate bill. Nevertheless, Democrats will eagerly pummel Republicans for "voting against kids" by refusing to sanction a long step toward Hillarycare.