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US President George W. Bush on Wednesday vetoed legislation expanding a health care program mostly aimed at poor children, a politically risky move ahead of the November 2008 elections.
The president's Democratic foes, unable to curtail the unpopular war in Iraq, have seized on his opposition to their plan to build up the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) as a potent political weapon. Bush's top Republican allies have declared they have the votes to prevent the US Congress from overriding his veto - even as some rank-and-file have worriedly surveyed a political landscape dominated by the war.
About 72 percent of Americans back the measure, according a recent public opinion poll by the Washington Post and ABC television. The survey had an error margin of plus or minus three percentage points.
Aware of the potential political costs, Bush formally rejected the bill behind closed doors at the White House, with a junior aide announcing the move over the loudspeakers in the media workspace. It was just the fourth time the president used his veto power since taking office in January 2001. US voters will decide their next president and control of the US Congress in the November 2008 elections.
Democrats immediately pounded Bush, with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid accusing him of "denying health care to millions of low-income kids" and vowing to "fight hard" to win the two-thirds majority needed to override the veto.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2007

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