Politico, Wash. Times uncritically reported GOP claims that Democrats unwilling to compromise on SCHIP

In recent reports on the House's failed attempt to override President Bush's veto of compromise legislation to expand the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), The Washington Times and the Politico uncritically reported that Republicans are urging Democrats to seek a compromise, but did not note that the legislation Bush vetoed represented a bipartisan compromise. In an October 18 article, the Politico reported that "[f]or several weeks, Republicans have been urging Democrats to come to the negotiating table to forge a bipartisan compromise on" SCHIP. Further, an October 19 article in the Times uncritically quoted House Minority Whip Roy Blunt (R-MO) saying that the October 18 vote on Bush's veto "brings to a close what's been a disappointing chapter on SCHIP, with Democrats devoting every bit of their energy to scoring political points, and none of it toward working with Republicans to craft an appropriate compromise that can be signed into law." In fact, Democrats had already, to use the Politico's language, "come to the negotiating table" and compromised with Republicans after a House version of the bill initially received the support of only five Republicans, as Media Matters for America previously documented.

On August 1, the House voted 225-204 to expand SCHIP by $50 billion, on a nearly party-line vote, with 220 Democrats and five Republicans voting for the bill and 10 Democrats and 194 Republicans voting against it. An August 2 Boston Globe article reported, "The Democratic-controlled House voted 225 to 204 yesterday to add $50 billion over five years to the $25 billion program, allowing enrollment to almost double to about 11 million children." The Globe further noted that "[t]he House bill must be reconciled with legislation awaiting action this week by the Senate. That measure would add $35 billion, with funding coming solely from increasing tobacco taxes. Bush has said he would veto either version, warning that Democrats are trying to replace private insurance with government-run healthcare." An August 2 Washington Post article reported that "[Sen. Orrin] Hatch [R-UT] and Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) said yesterday that the House-Senate negotiations will aim to keep the final measure within the scope of the Senate bill, in hopes of avoiding a veto. 'Personally, I believe if we can get enough votes, the president doesn't want to veto this,' " Hatch said. On August 2, by a vote of 68-31, the Senate approved a bill to expand SCHIP by $35 billion over five years, with 18 Republicans voting in favor and 29 voting against.

House and Senate negotiators settled on a bipartisan compromise that, as a September 18 article in The Washington Post reported, "borrow[ed] heavily from a Senate version that was passed with bipartisan support by a 68 to 31 vote, the [congressional] aides said. It would not include measures in the House version that would cut payments to private Medicare plans, nor would it deal with a scheduled 10 percent cut in Medicare payments to doctors." As the Post also noted, "The proposed $35 billion would bring total funding for the program to $60 billion over five years, the same as the Senate version. The House version, which passed by a 225 to 204 vote, largely along party lines, called for $50 billion in new SCHIP funding, for a total of $75 billion. President Bush has proposed an increase of just $5 billion, for a total of $30 billion."

After Bush threatened to veto the compromise legislation, as Media Matters documented, Democrats weren't the only ones who criticized him -- Senate Republicans also did. The House voted September 25 to concur with the House-Senate compromise by a 265-159 vote, with 45 Republicans voting in favor, compared with five who had voted in favor of the original House bill. One hundred fifty-one House Republicans opposed the bill. The Senate voted on September 27 to concur by a 67-29 vote, with 18 Republicans voting in favor.