Speaker Nancy Pelosi, originally uploaded by AFSCME.org.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.) spent the day spinning President Bush’s veto of the $35-billion expansion of SCHIP. In some cases, uneducated reporters failed to question their outrageous assertions. Fortunately, Republicans aren’t letting the Democrats get away with it.

Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.) left Emanuel speechless during a TV debate this afternoon. And when I asked Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) if Emanuel would successfully woo 15 Republicans to override the veto, Pence said his Democrat colleague was blowing smoke. “I think he‚Äôs talking through his hat,” Pence said.

Now I’m pleased to see the White House is challenging Pelosi on three misleading statements she made about SCHIP today.

1) Pelosi said he bill is “just enrolling all of the children who are eligible” and not “expanding an eligibility” for SCHIP. That’s a bald-faced lie, according to the White House.

• There are hundreds of thousands of children eligible for SCHIP under current law who are not signed up for the program. SCHIP was created to cover children in families with annual incomes at or below 200 percent of the Federal poverty level.

‚Ä¢ Congress’ bill explicitly rejects a requirement that 95 percent of eligible children from families with incomes under 200 percent of the poverty level must be enrolled in SCHIP before children in higher-income families can be covered.

‚Ä¢ Congress’ bill would also allow SCHIP to cover children in some households with incomes of up to $83,000 per year ‚Äì 400 percent of the Federal poverty level.

2) Pelosi said the bill was “about private medicine.” Yeah right, says the White House.

‚Ä¢ Under Congress’ plan, one out of every three additional children moving onto government coverage would be moving from private insurance. Of the approximately 6 million enrollees Congress’ legislation would attract by 2012, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projects that 2 million would drop private insurance to enroll.

‚Ä¢ The policies of the government ought to be helping people get private insurance, not Federal coverage. That’s why the President believes strongly in Association Health Plans to help small business owners better afford insurance for their workers and believes we ought to change the Federal tax code to help individuals better afford insurance in the marketplace.

3) Pelosi said Bush “missed an opportunity to say to the children of America, your health and well-being are important to us.” She obviously didn’t listen close enough.

‚Ä¢ Today, President Bush reiterated his strong support for SCHIP. THE PRESIDENT: “I strongly support the program. I like the idea of helping those who are poor be able to get health coverage for their children. I supported it as governor, and I support it as President of the United States.”

‚Ä¢ This year, the Administration will spend about $35.5 billion to provide health insurance for poor children through Medicaid. THE PRESIDENT: “In other words, when they say, ‘Well, poor children aren’t being covered in America,’ if that’s what you’re hearing on your TV screens, I’m telling you there’s $35.5 billion worth of reasons not to believe that.”