Excerpt:

Steve King thinks one his biggest accomplishment in Congress has been helping to block legislation that would expand health care insurance to children.

In an interview with the Sioux City Journal, Steve King cites his effort to block Democratic legislation in the last two years as one of his major accomplishments.

“That very well may be the best contribution that I have made in the 110th Congress, is slowing down, sometimes stopping Democratic-sponsored bills,” King said.

King specifically cites his efforts to derail the expansion of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), known locally as the Healthy and Well Kids in Iowa (HAWK-I) program. King was the lone member of Iowa’s congressional delegation to stand with President Bush in opposition to this popular, bipartisan legislation.

“I do believe if you took me out of the equation, there would have been a different funding result,” King said.

At least King has saved Christmas by passing a bill saying that Christmas and Christians are important, the lone bill that King has sponsored that has been signed into law.

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Excerpt:

Last fall, SCHIP passed the Senate with a veto proof margin, but it was unable to get enough votes to override Bush’s veto in the House.

However, this spring 3 House seats in heavily Republican districts have been won by Democrats, which makes you wonder if SCHIP should be brought back up for a vote.

From Open Left…

Now the closest vote on veto-override was 273-156 which put it 13 “yeas” short of override. Childers and Cazayoux explicitly and prominently support SCHIP expansion in their campaign web sites. Foster was more generally for UHC so I imagine he’s on board for SCHIP. So that narrows the margin to 276-153 at least. So we’d only need to flip another 10 votes to override.

With the GOP reeling I’m sure even some of the staunchest nay votes in the darkest red districts must be sweating a little. Doubting the surety of their re-election just a little. Back in 2007 they could assure themselves that Democrats would trip-up and the Republican situation would improve. It hasn’t and the trendline isn’t good.

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