SCHIP currently insures 1.5 million children in California and 6 million children nationwide who otherwise would not have health insurance. The bill passed by Congress would have ensured continued services to these children and extended coverage to an additional 4 million children nationwide who are currently eligible but are not covered due to a lack of funding. The bill passed the House last week 265 – 159, just 15 votes short of a veto-proof majority. The Senate passed the bill by a veto-proof majority, 67 to 29.

“With his veto of the children’s health insurance bill, President Bush has shown – once again – that he is neither compassionate nor conservative,” said Miller. “Congress passed, on a bi-partisan basis, a reasonable and affordable bill to cover up to 10 million kids who need health insurance. But the President has cynically and callously vetoed their access to health care.

“Our SCHIP bill would have expanded health insurance to children who need it, children who otherwise will not have health insurance. Providing children with health insurance is sound health policy and sound economics – as a large uninsured population is a drain on our public health system and the cost to taxpayers is an enormous burden.

“From 2001 until the end of last year, President Bush vetoed only one bill sent to him by the Republican-controlled Congress. Just one bill. And yet already, he has vetoed three crucial bills -- and threatened to veto dozens more -- now that Congress is heading in a new direction under a Democratic majority. When he became president, he inherited a historic $5 trillion projected budget surplus left to him by President Clinton. He spent every last penny and then ran up the budget deficit to $2.4 trillion, never objecting to a single spending bill – even when they contained a ‘bridge to nowhere.’

“But only now, after his party spent the taxpayers’ money like a drunken sailor, is the President claiming the need for restraint, opposing expanded health insurance, education, and other top priorities for our country. Shame on the President for turning his back on poor children in need of health care.

“There is only one answer to a president who fails to lead our country in the right direction, and that is for more members of his party to join the Democratic majority in overturning his veto. We will now make every effort to win the support of 15 more Republicans in the House to override the president’s veto. That will not be easy, because of pressure from the White House on the Republican Party. But we will try, and hopefully, for the sake of our children in California and across the country, we will succeed.”