GOP To Roll Over on S-CHIP?

Well, this isn’t exactly surprising, but it’s disappointing nonetheless.  House Republicans are looking for ways to get out of Bush’s S-CHIP veto. The Politico is reporting that, with a few minor tweaks in the legislation — but no spending decreases — enough Republicans might be convinced to fall in line with the Democrats to push the program through.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), on Tuesday signaled that he’s willing to accept a few small tweaks to the legislation, without compromising on the dollar figure or the number of children covered under the State Children’s Health Insurance Program.

…While these tweaks would do nothing to change the dollar amount or the number of kids covered, such changes could provide just enough political cover for reluctant Republicans to switch sides and embrace the popular program.

So not only will Republicans have lost major political capital with their petty bickering and caviling over the bill, it now looks possible, maybe even likely, that they’ll lose on the policy/legislative end as well.

Of course, this makes some sense. A lot of Republicans were pretty unhappy with having to support the president on this issue, and most of them just wanted it to quietly go away.  Overturning the veto might give the Democrats a huge success, but it would also muzzle the issue pretty quickly, as Pelosi and co. would do a victory lap and move on to the next item on their agenda.

Now, as I’ve said before, and as I’ll argue more extensively in a piece tomorrow, from a free-market perspective, there’s not much to like about Bush’s plan.  He wants to expand S-CHIP too, just not by as much.  But if it’s a choice between his plan and the one passed by Congress, I’ll grumble a bit and go with his.  Right now, though, it looks like a number of House Republicans are just trying to get out of this without any further skirmishes.