Real world casualties begin to mount in Democrats personal/political war

This spring, lawmakers sent Gov. Rod Blagojevich a proposed law that would require insurance companies to keep covering college students via their parents coverage if those students leave school or drop below full-time status because of medical problems.

The House approved it 105-3.
The Senate vote was 56-1.
Blagojevich has made health care his top priority.
Seems like a slam-dunk.

Nope. Not in the current political climate where Democratic leaders are at each others’ throats and use just about every opportunity to try to embarrass each other, no matter who ends up victimized.

One could easily envision Blagojevich taking out his pen at a big signing ceremony and signing the proposal into law, saying it’s an important safeguard for young adults but only a baby step in the right direction and more must be done.

He’d get to own the day, the media cycle, challenge lawmakers and at the same time actually do some good for someone.

Instead, we get this approach.

Blagojevich vetoed the plan. That’s right – rejected it. But with an asterisk*.

The governor added to the college emergency coverage plan provisions requiring insurance companies to let children stay on their parents insurance until age 26. Military members could remain on until age 30.
Now, he’ll send the whole new package back to lawmakers for a thumbs-up or thumbs-down vote.
If it’s thumbs-down, or if it’s never called for a vote, all of it is wiped out and lawmakers start over from scratch.

Keep in mind, the Illinois Supreme Court has on at least three occasions ruled that governors cannot wholesale rewrite or change legislation via the amendatory veto. Those rulings have been cited over the years by House Speaker Michael Madigan in explaining why certain amendatory vetoes are never considered.

But that’s part of the point here. Blagojevich gets to champion his efforts to expand health care, even if few of them ever result in success. And if his plan is blocked by the House, even for legit reasons, he gets to bang on Madigan, his chief political rival.

All of this misses one important point: because of today’s actions, there’s the very real chance that next year a college student will be diagnosed with cancer, catastrophically injured in a car crash, or suffer some other ruinous medical condition, have to leave school and, as a result, lose insurance coverage that would have been guaranteed if the state’s Democrats could just get along for five minutes.