Deal now or pay later
That’s the choice Congressional Republicans may be facing on SCHIP (via the Politico):
Democrats are considering giving Republicans a stark choice on the stalled children’s health bill: Cut a deal now or face a politically treacherous vote on the issue a month before next fall’s elections.
[....]
If there is no deal by mid-December to expand the program to 10 million lower-income children, Democrats may just propose a temporary extension to last until Sept. 30, 2008, which would force a vote on a critical issue just before the election, according to Democratic aides.
Sept. 30 is the end of this fiscal year.
If Kuhl has to vote against SCHIP again a month before the next election, he will pay a heavy price politically.  He’d be wise to cut a deal now while the cutting is good.
Something doesn’t ring true here.
What good is proposing such a temporary extension? It would be vetoed and I’m sure not overturned. This isn’t a viable part of any strategy. Could someone explain to me what this means?
I agree that forcing a vote on SCHIP a month or two before the election is useful and effective strategy, regardless of whether or not there is a temporary extension.
If the bill didn’t contain an expansion of the program, Bush would have a hard time vetoing it.
I think it basically serves as an ultimatum. The Dems are drawing a line and boxing Congressional Republicans into a corner. Similar to what Exile wrote, Bush can veto this bill, but funding for the program will run out soon. The onus will be on Bush to comply, given the temporary extension wouldn’t expand the program. This puts Republicans in the legislature in a tough position.
The last thing I want to see is the Dems creating an easy way out of the situation by basically capitulating to Bush (and claiming otherwise with creative figuratives of speech). We’ve seen enough of this during the current Congressional term.
Well, I must say then that this is crappy writing on the part of Politico. They don’t explain that there is an existing program which the Dems will extend only to Sept 30, 2008. Every article I have read about SCHIP talks about bills to expand the existing program … nowhere have I seen any mention of the existing SCHIP needs to be extended.
Yeah, the program was only authorized for 10 years. 1997 Balanced Budget Act.
[...] We discussed this posibility earlier.ÂÂ It’s a bad scenario for Kuhl and Reynolds…unless they change their tune and vote against The Decider for a change. [...]