This could (should) be the headline if the Congress and Senate garner enough votes to override President Bush's veto of the SCHIP (State Children's Health Insurance Program) bill.

    Many republican senators and congressmen have determined that they should vote for the bill because windage and elevation (lick the finger and stick it in the air) tells them that if they don't vote for it, they will be labled as "against kids" by the liberal press and democrat party office holders.  Reacting to public opinion, which is not fully informed, is not leadership...but this is a topic for another discussion.

    The fact is, the republican officials have a perfect reason for voting against the bill.  Please follow along, it will make sence in the end.

    The bill proposes to insure kids in families that have 4 kids and an income of up to $83K of income.  It proposes to finance this through a $0.61 tax per pack of cigarettes.  According to statistics revealed on www.quitsmokinghub.com, 33 percent of all people below the poverty line smoke.  Only 12 percent of people with at least 16 years of education (generally higher wage earners) smoke.  Native American and native Alaskans have a 41% rate of smokers.

    Democrats tout that they are the protectors of the poor and minorities (this is the part the republicans should seize upon), but are proposing a bill that would tax millions of those folks.  The truth of the matter is that dems want to grow the government and migrate it into a socialist government and will do so on the backs of every citizen, no matter the ethnic group or economic level of that person.  They are spending money to create and air commercials that call President Bush and other conservatives as "against the children" while harming the poorest children among us.  That same person who lives below the poverty level and has the unfortunate addiction of smoking already has SCHIP insurance for his kids and doesn't pay a dime for it.  At the other end of the scale, the person with 4 kids making $83K has a good enough job/position with a company that probably has great benefits (including a family healthcare plan).  His portion of the program cost can almost certainly be reduced if he cancels the coverage of his kids, and uses the SCHIP program (which he will undoubtably do).

    The bottom line is that the economically poor (who have SCHIP coverage now, at no expense to themselves) will begin to pay for the healthcare coverage of children of parents who have 3 and 4 times the income that they have.  This will result in low income families having less money for rent, food, clothes, etc.  How can the dems do this to the poor and minorities and still claim to be their saviors?

    If Congress overrides the SCHIP veto, poor and minorities will suffer the most.