Politicians are sailing on a SCHIP of fools

It was a political bomb that burped.While spending an estimated $5 million on an advertising blitz, Democrats saw President Bush veto expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program, then an attempt to override the veto fail Thursday in the House.

Like elk and pheasant, it's open season on politicians, and the Democratic-led push to expand SCHIP from the president's proposed $5 billion to $35 billion over five years smelled of political opportunism a whole lot more than it did of altruism. SCHIP provides federal dollars to states to pay for government-funded health insurance for children in families with incomes too great for Medicaid eligibility, yet not enough to afford private health insurance.

Ensuring the health and safety of our nation's youth is every adult's moral obligation to them. Unfortunately, SCHIP became a Democratic political ax brandished by those seeking to make Republican congressional hopefuls more vulnerable next year.

President Bush deserves credit, not criticism, for wanting to expand the program to $5 billion. To understand how ridiculously excessive $35 billion more for the program is, consider the independent analysis published last week by The Associated Press. It found that, at current spending levels, 21 states will run out of SCHIP money before next Oct. 1 if their funding increases only by President Bush's $5 billion.However, the analysis also showed that the shortfall would be $1.6 billion, so $6.6 billion would fully fund the program. President Bush hinted strongly that he was willing to negotiate somewhat, but not to the tune of Democrats' demands to fund the program at seven times what he had proposed. The President's voice and those who sustained his veto were the fiscally responsible ones in the crescendo of political fury.

Almost lost in the argument is another very basic truth. Those supporting the $35 billion expansion would have funded it through increased taxes on tobacco. Now, think about that for a moment. To generate that $35 billion from additional tobacco taxes to help uninsured or underinsured children, you're essentially encouraging many of them to take up smoking. That's neither morally defensible nor smart.

Our hope in all of this is that Democrats and Republicans can put their political agendas aside long enough to do the right thing for America's children. If $6.6 billion will do it, compromise and make it so.