S-CHIP UPDATE: GOP LOSES ITS NERVE.

S-CHIP UPDATE: GOP LOSES ITS NERVE. Last week Republican senators pleaded with President Bush to accept the bipartisan plan to use cigarette taxes to finance an expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program to cover millions of uninsured kids. Today, The New York Times reports:

In an unexpected turn of events, the top two Republicans in the Senate, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Trent Lott of Mississippi, said they opposed a bipartisan bill that the Senate Finance Committee approved last week and would offer an alternative on the Senate floor. ... Top House Republicans objected to the House Democrats’ plan to finance their proposals, with increases in tobacco taxes and cuts in subsidies for private health plans serving older Americans on Medicare. Republicans say public coverage would in some cases replace private insurance.“Dragging people out of private health insurance to put them into a government-run program is ‘Hillary care’ come back,” Mr. Boehner said, referring to the Clinton administration plan for universal coverage.

So the Republican leadership is now parroting back the same Bush claim of catastrophe for private insurers that Nancy Pelosi called false and "absolutely immoral" yesterday. The reason why we need this bill is because poor children don't have health insurance, not because they do and we want to transfer them to a government plan. And here comes the "Hillary care" panic flag. Looks like this fight really is shaping up into "spring training for universal health care."--Dana Goldstein