McIntyre flip flops

Wilmington, NC – Rep. Mike McIntyre has indicated he will now vote to over ride a Presidential veto on a bill he originally voted against. President Bush vetoed the bill expanding the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) for being to expansive and expensive. McIntyre had said he voted against the bill over the funding mechanism, an increase in the tax on tobacco and because it opens up the program to illegal aliens.

McIntyre now says he will vote to over ride that veto. Democrat Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said over the weekend "We'll try very hard to override it. But one thing's for sure: We won't rest..."

Congressional Candidate Will Breazeale today criticizes Rep. Mike McIntyre for “flip-flopping” on the SCHIP expansion bill. “It certainly seems like Pelosi is pulling Mike’s strings and making him dance to her tune” said Breazeale. “He said that it was wrong to target tobacco to pay for the program and also was concerned about it covering illegal immigrants, but it seems toeing the Democrat Party line was more important to him in the end.” Breazeale also noted that a donation was made through his web site today from a Wilmington voter with the comment the donor was “about McIntyre flip-flopping on the SCHIP issue!”

The Republicans opposing the expansion have noted that the pressure to enact the bill coincides with Democrat Presidential candidates clamoring to endorse socialized heath care for all. This view was reinforced when Rep. Rangel, Chairman of the Ways and Means committee, said “It hardly matters that the expansion would be expensive or a step toward socialized health care.” This bill would cost taxpayers $35 billion but the Democrat’s original bill would have totaled $50 billion.

The Democrats need to “flip” 24 members who voted against the bill in order to over ride the President’s veto. This pressure had been predicted in an October 3rd story in the Washington Post. That article predicted “the real pressure will likely fall on the eight Democrats who voted against the program,” including McIntyre.

McIntyre has been pressured also by the left wing organizations such and Moveon.org and Daily Kos which said of McIntyre and other Democrats who voted against the bill – there will “be plenty of eyeballs on these votes.” All across the left side of the “blogosphere” there have been negative comments about McIntyre’s vote, even some comments calling for someone to oppose Mike in the primary.

Republicans, such as Breazeale, have been critical of the attempt by Congressional Democrats to expand the SCHIP program beyond the original purpose of providing affordable health insurance for low income families who make too much money to qualify for Medicaid but not enough to afford health insurance for their children. “The Democrats wanted to expand it to include families earning as much as $82,000 per year” said Breazeale “The Republican plan was to increase funding to allow the plan to continue with the original purpose and focus on lower income families – not middle income families. The bill as proposed by the Democrats, now including McIntyre, is just another step toward their goal of socialized medicine”