The NYT a pretty interesting article on the politics behind SCHIP, but it has big problems. First, the article makes it pretty clear that the President decided to veto this bill regardless of what was in it. He has never tried to work with the bill's designers to come up with an acceptable compromise. The veto is entirely his decision and his fault. So why then is the headline "Missteps on Both Sides Led to Health Bill Veto?" Now, who's fault is it that the veto wasn't overridden?

With the departure of Tom DeLay and his jailed associates, Congressional Republicans have become the guardians of fair legislative process, or so they would have you believe. Take just about any issue where they have an unpopular stance, and it's almost guaranteed that they will finger-wag and bray about "playing politics" and so on.

Last night, the Senate passed the latest version of the SCHIP package. The 65-30 vote (roll call is veto-proof, because enough Senators who didn't vote are reliable "yea" votes. Since the bill did not receive a veto-proof majority in the House, Congressional leaders may decide to not send the bill to the President. Instead, Senate and House negotiators appear to be working hard on a new compromise bill that could be voted on as early as next week.

The House Committe on Oversight and Government Reform had a hearing today on the Bush administration's backdoor Medicaid cuts. Extremely loyal BudgetBlog readers may recall that the Administration has been pushing for rules that would cut Medicaid ever since the same cuts were rejected by the last (Republican-controlled!) Congress. I guess they haven't given up. The Administration is claiming that the rules will cut down on bad claims on Medicaid. Not so, says Chairman Waxman.