Call the president's heartless bluff

The battle in Congress over funding for two key programs serving needy children underscores the abundance of hypocrisy even when lawmakers aren't debating the war.

The 2007 Farm Bill is in danger of a veto largely because it contains a $4 billion increase for food stamps and other nutrition programs. The same fate awaits an expansion of the federal/state health-care program for children who do not qualify for Medicaid but cannot afford private insurance.

The deal-breakers for President Bush and all but a handful of Republican lawmakers are the tax provisions inserted into the bills to pay for budget increases. The pay-as-you-go sensibility adopted by Congress has spurred a newfound creativity when it comes to budgeting.

Increases in the food-stamp and nutrition programs would be paid for by a tax on some foreign companies operating in the U.S., which are currently exempted by treaties from paying federal taxes. Another federal tax, this one on cigarettes, would fund a much-needed expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP).

The funding mechanisms elicited howls and arguments in their respective corners. The White House, mysteriously unbothered by a $12 billion monthly tab for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, is reaching for a veto pen rather than raising a few taxes to feed children and keep them healthy.

It is simple, says Department of Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns. "We don't support tax increases."

Not when it helps the needy. This is, after all, the president who among his first duties in office was offering a $1.7 billion tax cut in 2001 that went largely to the upper 10-to-20 percent of wage earners — not to mention more than a trillion in assorted tax cuts over the past decade. There is, apparently, no short supply of hypocrisy in the nation's capital.

I don't get it. Frankly, I don't want to.

Something is drastically wrong when taxing the leading cause of lung cancer to pay for health care for children sparks a veto. Something is terribly amiss when the president of the wealthiest nation on the planet offers sick children the option of an emergency room visit over health checkups.

If lawmakers punt on children's health-care and nutrition programs, we need new leaders.

A sense of outrage may be difficult for some to summon. After all, the economy is strong. Unemployment is low. But the other side of the coin is this: Food stamps have not kept pace with inflation. Over the past 10 years, a typical household of three has seen the purchasing power of its food stamps drop by 11 percent, according to the Children's Alliance, a nonprofit advocacy group in Washington state.

And vigilance on health-care coverage for children is also critical despite the appearance of full employment here and around the country. Many families work jobs that don't offer health-care insurance. Washington and 10 other states that expanded health-insurance coverage to children in families a notch above the poverty line — about $30,000 to $40,000 a year for a family of four — have done it largely with local funds.

The federal government's tardy acknowledgment that it isn't only the poorest children going without annual checkups, dental care and glasses will triple Washington state's share of federal health-care-coverage funding. Feed more hungry children. Avoid costly and heartbreaking childhood illnesses. These efforts deserve a presidential commendation, not vetoes.

Congress will be challenged to override vetoes on the farm bill and the children's health-insurance legislation. A dozen or so GOP lawmakers would have to defect to bolster the narrow Democratic majority and achieve a two-thirds vote for an override. The president knows this and it has led him to think he's in the driver's seat. Already this year, Bush has threatened to veto legislation punishing energy price gouging and requiring Medicare to push for lower drug prices.

Call the president's bluff. His approval ratings are in the toilet. Opposing him — particularly in defense of malnourished or sick kids — is as good a re-election tactic as any.

Considerable research shows what anyone with a working brain already knows: An inadequate diet or poor health can affect a child's life in so many ways, from the ability to succeed in school to having the energy to play in the summer sun.

Lynne K. Varner's column appears regularly on editorial pages of The Times. Her e-mail address is seattletimes.com">lvarner@seattletimes.com; for a podcast Q&A with the author, go to Editorial/Opinion at seattletimes.com