Budget Games That Hurt Children

As Rell suggested, there are plenty of problems with Bush's budget, and with Republican governors complaining (Rell is not alone), even members of Congress from the president's own party will quietly turn their backs on parts of his plan.

But the most shameful move may be the poorly disguised reduction in SCHIP, the program for working families with kids whose households earn too much to qualify for Medicaid but too little to afford private coverage -- exactly the sorts of hardworking citizens welfare reformers claim to love.

At a time when so many Americans are losing private medical insurance, the SCHIP program -- passed in 1997 with strong bipartisan support -- is one of the few government efforts working against that dangerous trend.

The program now covers about 6 million children over the course of a year. A president who cared about inequality would presumably be proposing to expand the program to cover the remaining 6 million lower-income children who still lack health coverage. At modest cost and in a rather simple way, Bush could get credit for taking a measured but significant step toward universal coverage.

Instead, Bush proposes what's called an increase in SCHIP funding of $4.2 billion over five years that has the practical effect of cutting into the number of children who are covered. Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), the Finance Committee chairman and no flaming liberal, has estimated it would take $15 billion over that period just to maintain current coverage levels.

The president is far more committed to cutting taxes for Paulson's old Wall Street pals than to getting health coverage to kids with low-wage working parents. It's to Paulson's credit that, judging by his words at least, he appeared to be embarrassed. Clearly Bush isn't.

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