In a Thursday morning tweet, President Trump appeared to undercut House Republicans’ plan for the Children’s Health Insurance Program, a bipartisan initiative that covers nearly 9 million children across the nation. “CHIP should be part of a long term solution, not a 30 Day, or short term, extension!” the president wrote. Since Congress failed to reauthorize spending for CHIP by a Sept. 30 deadline last year, House Republicans put a six-year extension of the program into a short-term spending bill, hoping to use it as bait to get Democrats to vote for the larger package. Trump’s stated position, which is confusing as it doesn’t mention this six-year extension, could undermine a process that Democrats had already labeled as a cynical ploy for their votes.
