Bush's masquerade of responsibility

If President Bush makes good on a threat to veto improvements to the health-insurance program for children, it would be cruelty masquerading as fiscal responsibility.

Congress is close to reauthorizing the State Children's Health Insurance Program with additional flexibility and resources. The $35 million expansion would be paid for by higher federal taxes on cigarettes. The increase in federal funding would be a boon for our state, which has largely been locked out of federal matching funds for children's insurance.

Credit Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., who serves on the Finance Committee, for aggressively securing a federal rule change that ends the punishment of our state for covering more needy children than most other states.

When the federal program was created in 1997, states could use the money only for an expansion of their children's health-coverage program. Washington state already had expanded coverage, thus much of the federal money was off limits. Washington was forced to return unspent money each year.

We shouldn't be punished for doing the right thing.

Children's health is a priority. Since 1999, Washington has covered children up to 250 percent of the poverty level. A Bush veto would force the state to repeal this coverage or pay for it itself. It would also derail critical goals set by Gov. Christine Gregoire.

Beginning in 2009, children in families earning up to 300 percent of the poverty level, or with annual income of $61,950, would be eligible for affordable health-care coverage. By 2010, all uninsured children would be eligible for coverage.

This is a worthy goal. Children without access to medical care end up costing more when they get sick than would have been spent to insure them. Sliding-scale premiums ensure that families that can pay something will. Mechanisms are in place to prevent replacing a child's private coverage with public coverage.

The insurance program was created by a bipartisan wellspring of congressional understanding that having healthy children pays off with lower medical costs and children ready to learn. An estimated 1.4 million children nationwide need access to affordable coverage for medical checkups and preventive care.

Federal lawmakers must stand up to President Bush. If he vetoes the bill, they must override it.