In response to the President’s opposition to the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (S-CHIP) program, a Claremore Progress editorial states:

Senator Oren Hatch is a conservative Republican from Utah who has for years worked on health care issues in Congress. Hatch, working with Democrats, has reached a compromise on a state-federal partnership that provides health insurance for kids, mainly children of the working poor and lower middle class.

The program, known as the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, provides federal funds to match state dollars to make certain that families that are working but yet don’t have health insurance or can’t afford it receive access to a program administered by the states. Oklahoma, under the leadership of Democratic Senator Tom Adelson and Republican Senator Brian Crain, has been one of the more innovative states in working with the program.

Hatch now wants to help even more working class families because he realizes that a child without health care is ultimately paid for by all the rest of us and, perhaps equally important, is less likely to do well in school which becomes the potential for a greater cost to society.

The problem is that President Bush, who ran as a compassionate conservative, wants to veto the compromise bill that Hatch has produced. The President’s rationale is that the country can’t afford the Hatch program.

Oren Hatch may be a lot of things, but he’s not a big spender or a raving liberal. Bush, who has no problem with spending $500 billion in Iraq, somehow seems to think that adding $35 billion over five years to help American children is too much. It’s another example of why not only should there be a debate about the war in Iraq, but also about its cost. When conservative senators like Oren Hatch find themselves being accused of spending too much, it’s time for the White House to review its position.

In addition to repeatedly misspelling Hatch’s first name (it’s Orrin rather than Oren), the Progress falls for (or, depending on your opinion, is a willing accomplice in) the Left’s usual rhetoric that if you oppose this bill for any reason whatever you hate children. Forget that the costs are greatly misstated and that it puts kids who are already covered otherwise under a bureaucratic government program, George W. Bush must eat babies for supper.

But don’t take my word for it. Tom Coburn can tell you more about it than me:

[Hat Tip to Oklahoma Political News Service for video link.]