S-CHIP battle

House in session, 1 minute speeches have started...

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of Calif., right, meets with Dara Wilkerson and her daughter Bethany, 2, of Tampa, Fla., on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2007, Bethany who was born with a serious heart condition and relies on State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) for her health coverage. (AP Photo/Lauren Victoria Burke)

Nancy Pelosi trots out another family that utilizes the SCHIP program, and still will regardless of what happens...Pelosi wants you to think the Bush and the Republicans want to stop the program which is a lie. And isn't that really all Pelosi cares about? But it appears that she will suffer another in a long line of failures during her reign as Queen of the House;

President Bush, anticipating that his veto of a $35 billion spending increase for children’s insurance will stand, has assigned three top advisers to try to negotiate a new deal with Congress.

Democrats appeared about 15 votes short in the House heading into Thursday’s attempt to override Bush’s veto of their $35 billion spending increase for the program. The president said his veto gives him a chance to weigh in on the future of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program.

“Sometimes the legislative branch wants to go on without the president, pass pieces of legislation and the president can then use the veto to make sure he’s a part of the process,” Bush said. Leading the discussions for his administration are Mike Leavitt, the health and human services secretary; Al Hubbard, director of the National Economic Council; and Jim Nussle, the White House budget chief. But supporters of the bill passed last month by Congress say they already have compromised. The House originally had proposed a $50 billion increase over five years.

The bill is bipartisan and the Senate has shown it could override a veto. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has replied with an emphatic “no” when asked if he would seek a compromise with the administration. Both the House and Senate have to override a veto for a bill to become law over a president’s objection.

Through the program, the government and the states subsidize the cost of health coverage for families that earn too much to qualify for Medicaid but not enough to afford private insurance. Bush has recommended a $5 billion increase, bringing total spending over five years to $30 billion — half the level called for in the bill that he vetoed.