Bush: Don't tax cigarettes to pay for children's health care

On what planet can a president talk about the sanctity of human life while at the same time refusing to increase the tax on cigarettes to fund children's health care?

President Bush yesterday rejected entreaties by his Republican allies that he compromise with Democrats on legislation to renew a popular program that provides health coverage to poor children, saying that expanding the program would enlarge the role of the federal government at the expense of private insurance.

The president said he objects on philosophical grounds to a bipartisan Senate proposal to boost the State Children's Health Insurance Program by $35 billion over five years. Bush has proposed $5 billion in increased funding and has threatened to veto the Senate compromise and a more costly expansion being contemplated in the House.

"I support the initial intent of the program," Bush said in an interview with The Washington Post after a factory tour and a discussion on health care with small-business owners in Landover. "My concern is that when you expand eligibility . . . you're really beginning to open up an avenue for people to switch from private insurance to the government."

The 10-year-old program, which is set to expire on Sept. 30, costs the federal government $5 billion a year and helps provide health coverage to 6.6 million low-income children whose families do not qualify for Medicaid but cannot afford private insurance on their own.

About 3.3 million additional children would be covered under the proposal developed by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and Republican Sens. Charles E. Grassley (Iowa) and Orrin G. Hatch (Utah), among others. It would provide the program $60 billion over five years, compared with $30 billion under Bush's proposal. And it would rely on a 61-cent increase in the federal excise tax on cigarettes, to $1 a pack, which Bush opposes.

[snip]

A recent analysis by the Congressional Budget Office concluded that the program would require about $14 billion in new money over five years -- on top of the current $5 billion in annual funding -- merely to keep covering the same number of children, in part because of rising health-care costs. Secretary of Health and Human Services Mike Leavitt, accompanying Bush yesterday, said: "We disagree with that number."

Of course they do, because in BushWorld, you just pull numbers out of your ass if the facts don't fit your worldview. Would somebody please tell this mean-spirited bastard that the people in this program are in it BECAUSE THEY CANNOT AFFORD TO BUY PRIVATE HEALTH INSURANCE???? And even if you want to allow that some people do have private insurance, most likely through companies like this one, if a health coverage program run by the government is by definition so bad, why would people rush into it from a private plan?

Democrats, here is your issue for 2008. Are you going to use it?