Having now been vetoed, the next phase in the fight over S-CHIP is the override attempt.
“Congress will fight hard to override President Bush’s heartless veto,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada vowed.
Republican leaders expressed confidence they have enough votes to make the veto stick in the House, and not a single senior Democrat disputed them. A two-thirds majority in both houses of Congress is required to override a veto.
I have a hard time seeing how the Dems can get enough Republicans to change their minds. There’s always going to be some ideological opposition, and there’s always going to be some resistance to the idea of overriding a President of your own party, even an unpopular one. I expect there to be a full-court press, and we already know that a few Dems who didn’t cast a vote in favor will come around, but I think it will fall short. Which means we’ll go through all this again, not that that’s a bad thing. Who’s Playin’ has a Texas blog roundup on S-CHIP, while Jon Swift has an appropriate reaction to it all.
UPDATE: Kos has a good roundup, too.
How any representative can find basis to deny health care to children is beyond most people. But when dealing with Republicans, anything is possible, isn’t it?