Pelosi Stuck on a Sinking SCHIP

The Dems were counting on forcing a presidential signature on the SCHIP bill by threatening to demogogue the issue to death. The president didn't bite and vetoed the bill. Now the Dems have placed all their hopes in being able to scare enough Republicans into changing their votes to override the president's veto. That won't happen either. Nancy Pelosi is now in a precarious position:

Neither side is ready yet to negotiate, as Congress prepares to vote on an override of President Bush’s veto of an expansion of children’s health insurance.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) vowed no compromise on the $35 billion State Children’s Health Insurance Program. “No lower level than 10 million children,” she said on Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.” “I wish the president had signed the bill. We’ll try very hard to override it.”

But Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said concessions are inevitable. “She is going to compromise, there’s no choice. We are not going to walk away and leave these young people from low-income families uninsured,” McConnell said also on ABC.

“This is going to be like a pebble in the ocean,” he predicted, “a short-term controversy, a big partisan struggle, and then it’s going to be over.”

Earlier on “Fox News Sunday,” House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) said that Republicans would sustain the veto when the issue returns to the House floor.

If the veto stands, House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) said Democrats will simply introduce a new version of the bill “In the end, I think we will add 4 million children to health care,” he said on Fox.

If the Dems insist on adding people to the program who are adults up to age 25 and families earning up to $83,000, the president will keep vetoing the bill. They're going to have to come up with a better bill than what they've created so far.