The House fell nine votes short of overriding President Bush's veto of a bill that would have expanded the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). Over the course of the debate on the bill we've looked at the money Sen. Mitch McConnell and President Bush have taken from HMOs and Big Tobacco (the increase in the program would have been funded by an additional tax on tobacco products). Now we see the end result: another example of big money interests dominating over voter concerns.

President Bush just vetoed the bill to expand SCHIP, the State Children's Health Insurance Program, to cover an additional 4 million kids from lower income backgrounds. While the Senate has the votes to override the veto, the House does not.

What comes first for Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) -- health insurance for kids, or profit margins for HMOs and Big Tobacco?  Our new web ad asks the question. 

Forty-seven million Americans don't have health insurance, and 8.7 million of them are children according to just-released census data. The numbers signal a disturbing trend: the number of uninsured are rising (even as the median income rises) and still President Bush is vocal in his opposition to expanding a program that could extend insurance to 5 to 6 million children, by levying higher taxes on tobacco products. Ah, the great moral quandary: healthy kids or healthy profit margins for Big Tobacco?