Bush's SCHIP Veto Could Hurt Republicans

By Eunice Moscoso, Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Posted October 5, 2007.

WASHINGTON -- President Bush's veto Wednesday of a children's insurance measure could hurt many poor Hispanics and further erode Latino support for the GOP, political experts and liberal activists said.

The impact could be less than expected, however, because some Latino groups did not embrace the measure since it would have barred thousands of legal immigrant children from participating in the insurance program.

The legislation would have expanded the State Children's Health Insurance Program, or SCHIP, by $35 billion over five years. The program serves thousands of Latino children who lack private health insurance.

Thomas Mann, a political analyst at the Brookings Institution in Washington, said Bush's veto is enormously unpopular with almost every group in the country, including Hispanics.

"The veto, especially if sustained in the House by Republicans, is bound to further weaken Republican support among Latinos," he said.

John Pitney, a political science professor at Claremont McKenna College in California, said that Democrats will surely run Spanish language ads on the issue during the 2008 election cycle.

"Republicans have a reasonable policy argument against the measure, but it sounds complex and abstract," Pitney said. "The Democratic argument is simple and strong: 'We want to help kids but Bush and his friends do not.'"

In addition, Pitney said that Republicans will have to explain why they are suddenly showing fiscal restraint after spending money "like drunken sailors."

"Democrats will ask why the GOP is suddenly sobering up when facing a program that helps poor Hispanic kids," he said.

On Wednesday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., made that point, saying that the money proposed for SCHIP under the legislation "is the equivalent of what the President spends in less than four months in Iraq."

Reid also said that the veto would especially hurt Hispanic children. ?

The SCHIP program currently costs $25 billion and provides health care to more than 6 million children in families with incomes too high to qualify for Medicaid but not high enough to pay for private coverage. The additional money would enable states to provide health coverage to another 3.8 million children.

At least one third of such new enrollees would be Latino children because many currently eligible Hispanics are not enrolled, said Edwin Park, a senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a liberal think tank in Washington.

In total, about 40 percent of Hispanic children get their insurance through the SCHIP program or Medicaid, according to Park.

Without a significant increase in funding, the program will not be able to sustain itself, he said.

"Every day there's going to be more uninsured kids in this country and because Latino children, in particular, are much more likely to be uninsured, they will be disproportionately affected," Park said.

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