SCHIP -- Taxing the poor to provide health care for the middle class

I don't know if this is a winner for the Democrats - they're trying to tax the poor to pay for health care for the middle class. How can they spin that? The democrats are unwilling to pass an SCHIP program which will cover just the poor and will instead fund the expansion of the program into the middle class throuogh a ridiculously regressive tax. I don't understand how the Republicans can avoid hitting the Democrats on this. This is about taxing the poor to provide health care for middle class families, which can afford health care themselves. How is that flying?

Child Health Veto Will Be Election Issue
Bush's Quiet Veto of Child Health Bill Will Reverberate into Election Campaigns
ABC News

President Bush cast a quiet veto Wednesday against a politically attractive expansion of children's health insurance, triggering a striggle with the Democratic-congrolled Congress certain to reverberate into the 2008 elections.

"Congress will fight hard to override President Bush's heartless veto, "vowed Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada.

Republican leaders expressed confidence they have enough votes to make the veto strict in the Heouse, and not a single senior Democrat disputed them. A two-thirds majority in both houses of Congress is required to override a veto.

Bush vetoesd the bill in private, absent the television camera and other media coverage that normally attend even more routine presidential actions. The measure called for adding in estimated 4 million mostly ower income to a program that currently covers 6.6 million. Funds for the expansion would come from higher tobacco taxes, including a 61-cent increase on a pack of cigarettes.