A month ago, Montana House Republicans proposed peeling back funding for the voter-approved expansion of the Children’s Health Insurance Program before reaching a deal with their Democratic colleagues. Now Senate Republicans have put $30 million in CHIP money back on the chopping block.
It’s just one area of the state budget that GOP senators have proposed belt-tightening. From the Associated Press:
The Senate Finance and Claims Committee first voted on party lines in the morning to reduce state agency funding by $27 million. The panel also reduced state funding of education more than $30 million — with the promise to later backfill that money from federal stimulus money coming to the state.
But the move that perhaps caused the biggest rift was the one to take another $30 million out of the planned expansion of the Children’s Health Insurance Program. Voters just approved the idea in November by a large margin, and it was a signature issue for Democrats.
When the budget was in the House, Republicans backed away from a proposal to only partially fund CHIP and reached a compromise with Democrats hailed as a “milestone” for the way in which the two sides worked together.
It sure appears that camaraderie may be unraveling in the Senate. And if Republicans stick to a spending plan that doesn’t fully fund CHIP, expect Democrats to continue to point out that Montana voters overwhelmingly approved expanding the program. This graph (see above), which highlights support for CHIP expansion by Senate District, landed in my inbox over the weekend.