It's almost admirable the way the Republicans went all in on obstruction over the past two years. The American people made it crystal clear during the 2006 elections what they wanted from their government and the Republicans had absolutely no interest in conceding it to them. Instead, seeing the 2008 writing on the wall, they figured they'd simply postpone the inevitable for two years and hope in the meantime that an anti-incumbency wave would hit the Democrats.

One of the more high profile examples of this obstruction was their opposition to the expansion of S-CHIP. While certainly many Republicans did cross party lines to support the measure, ultimately George W. Bush vetoed it and enough members of congress opposed it to avoid an override.

Well, things are different now and the Republicans who obstructed it before may be wishing they hadn't. Check out The AP's lede:

Republicans appear to have overplayed their hand when blocking the expansion of a children's health care program last year.

They face the likelihood that Democrats in the coming weeks will pass a bill that they dislike even more.

Hahahahaha. Nice.

Some specifics:

The Senate planned to begin debate as early as Monday on a bill that would increase spending on the State Children's Health Insurance Program by $31.5 billion over the next 4 1/2 years. [...]

It is friendlier to states that want to cover children in families with incomes exceeding three times the federal poverty level -- $63,600 for a family of four.

Also, the bill calls for covering children of legal immigrants now barred from government-sponsored insurance until they have been in the country at least five years. [...]

The money to pay for expanding the program would come from a 61-cents per pack increase in the tax on cigarettes as well as tax increases on other tobacco products.

The Congressional Budget Office projects that the extra spending would allow 4 million uninsured children to gain coverage through Medicaid and SCHIP through 2013. Another 2.3 million will join the program after previously getting private insurance.

Some Republicans are pissed that Democrats are adding provisions to the bill, especially vis a vis children of legal immigrants and they intend to offer an amendment "that would keep children of newer legal immigrants out of SCHIP or Medicaid."

Reid seems uninterested in their whining:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Friday that investing in children's health coverage brings savings down the road because those kids are more likely to become productive adults.

"Some people want to make this a debate about immigration. This isn't a debate about immigration. It's a debate about taking care of our children, children who are here legally," Reid said.

In other words, to paraphrase Barack:

We won.

There's more...

Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Democratic leaders held a news conference in the Capitol last night following the vote on the revised bipartisan SCHIP bill, which passed by a vote of 265 to 142. Below are the Speaker's opening remarks:

"Today we took another step forward in providing health insurance for 10 million children. It's an interesting vote. Although we had a number of absences on both sides, we had a situation where on the motion to recommit, the Republicans who all day railed against the increase in taxes in the package, in their motion to recommit, had the same 61-cent tax on cigarettes."

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PLEASE FORWARD, LIBERALLY

1. Meet Sen. Russ Feingold on Oct. 15, THIS MONDAY!
John Stocks invites you to a reception to meet Sen. Russ Feingold in support of his Progressive Patriots Fund, Monday, Oct. 15, 6:00 - 7:30 PM, at Bobby Van's Grill, 1201 New York Ave., NW, suggested contributions: Guest $250, Friend $500, etc.  To RSVP contact Lenee Kruse at 202-548-0563 kruse@progressivepatroitsfund.com

There's more...

What's more important to Senator Mitch McConnell -- health insurance for 157,996 of Kentucky's children or big money donors from Big Tobacco, HMOs, and other health interests?

You can guess the answer by the mere fact that I even have to ask the question.

With an imminent Senate vote on S-CHIP, the children's health insurance program, we at Public Campaign Action Fund made a poignant, hard-hitting web ad that raises this question for Sen. McConnell.

There's more...

Using poor children as pawns is the nastiest sort of partisan politics.  That Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), once a poor child himself, would stoop to this level by voting against the State Children's Health Insurance Program (S-CHIP) shows that his desire to become president has surpassed his ability to support progressive values.

There's more...