My plan for SCHIP expansion

Since congressional Democrats really needed the Bush administration to take the step of announcing a plan to kill children in order to find their spines, I want to offer them some advice for the coming fight. First, here's the latest on SCHIP:

The House was scheduled to vote Tuesday on whether to expand the State Children's Health Insurance Program by a greater amount than President Bush wants. The Senate plans to vote Thursday.

Lawmakers say both chambers will pass the bill, which would add $35 billion over five years to the program, allowing 4 million more children to join the 6 million now enrolled. Bush vows to veto it, however, and the House appears unlikely to muster the two-thirds majority needed to override a veto.

If that happens, lawmakers and the administration will haggle over a temporary extension of the 10-year-old program, set to expire Sunday.

This "temporary extension" business is a move that congressional Republicans desperately need so that they don't have to own the fact that they're too in bed with the administration to override his veto. It also puts Democrats in a tricky position because if they refuse a temporary extension, then there will be a vicious, lie-ridden spin battle between Democrats and Republicans over who really killed SCHIP.

So here's my advice: Every week the Democrats should grant a one week extension of SCHIP, and every week they should force a vote on the same bill. Every week that bill will get vetoes, and every week, that will give congressional Republicans the chance to override Bush's veto. Each time they side with the president, Reid and Pelosi should hold a joint press conference, should say that the Republicans are too scared of the president to protect children, that they're playing politics with children. They should refuse to adjourn for recesses or confirm any appointees until their reforms are signed into law.

Then, when they get their way, they should issue nothing but mixed statements--"we're grateful that Republican leadership belatedly agreed to insure millions of American children after having kept them at risk for so long--to the press. Then, in the summer before the election, they should run ads which include lines like "Congressman X voted 7 times to deny health insurance to millions of American children, and 8 times to send their siblings to war." Now what, do you suppose, the chances that that will happen are?