Well, here we go. Conservatives crying social medicine Democrats crying for the poor children and we will fall for the bull the way we always do. Screaming at each other for either being for socialism or being against the children. What a bunch of crap. I’m going to stay out of this one.

The Senate defied President Bush on Thursday and passed a bipartisan bill that would provide health insurance for millions of children in low-income families.

The vote was 68 to 31. The majority was more than enough to overcome the veto repeatedly threatened by Mr. Bush. The White House said the bill “goes too far in federalizing health care.”

But Senator Max Baucus, Democrat of Montana and chief sponsor of the bill, said, “Millions of American children have hope for a healthier future tonight.”

The bill would increase spending on the popular Children’s Health Insurance Program by $35 billion over the next five years.

“Covering these children is worth every cent,” said Senator Orrin G. Hatch, Republican of Utah, who helped create the program 10 years ago.

The House passed a much larger bill on Wednesday, presenting negotiators with a formidable challenge in trying to work out differences between the two measures.

Still, the strong commitment to the issue by Democratic leaders virtually guarantees that they can work out a compromise before Sept. 30, when the program is set to expire. But that compromise is likely to be unacceptable to Mr. Bush.

If Mr. Bush vetoes the bill, the future of the program would quickly become an issue in 2008 campaigns for Congress and the White House, in the context of a broader debate about universal coverage for health care.

The House bill, which passed on a vote of 225 to 204, would increase spending by $50 billion over the next five years. The Senate rejected a proposal by Senator John Kerry, Democrat of Massachusetts, to match that increase — and to cover the extra cost by raising taxes on people with incomes exceeding $1 million a year.

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