Defy the Decider.

Byline: The Register-Guard

A president who exhibits no qualms about burning through $10 billion a month for a misbegotten war has promised to veto a bipartisan bill that would expand health care coverage to more of the nation's 9 million uninsured children. That's a hard-to-trump example of misplaced priorities.

The decade-old State Children's Health Insurance Program has a can't-miss constituency: uninsured children in families that earn too much to qualify for Medicaid but can't afford private health insurance. Known by its acronym SCHIP (pronounced "ESS-chip'), the program is set to expire Sept. 30 unless it's reauthorized by Congress.

The Senate Finance Committee has crafted a sensible, bipartisan plan to expand the program, adding 3.3 million more children to the 6.6 million covered under the current authorization. Funding for the expansion - $35 billion over the next five years - would come from a 61-cent per pack increase in the federal cigarette tax. Oregon Sens. Gordon Smith and Ron Wyden strongly support the proposal.

This is a two-for-one health win. In addition to insuring more kids, raising the cost of tobacco reduces its use among young people right at the age when they're most vulnerable to tobacco addiction.

So what's not to like? Two things for Bush and others of a similar ideological bent: It involves a tax increase, and its expanded eligibility has the potential to shift some families with higher incomes away from private insurance to a publicly assisted government insurance program.

Oregon has a dog in this fight. The SCHIP program offers a potential windfall of federal matching money to the state. For every dollar Oregon puts into SCHIP, the federal government adds $2.67. The almost 3-to-1 match is an incentive for states to insure the most children.

A report by the health care advocacy group Families USA says that Oregon could receive about $549 million in new federal funds over the next five years under the expanded program. The report estimates that the infusion of federal funds would create $219.4 million in increased business activity and 2,444 additional jobs in Oregon.

With House Democrats pushing an even more generous reauthorization package of $50 billion over five years, the future of the popular health care program for children is in doubt. SCHIP enjoys substantial bipartisan support, but no one is prepared to predict whether enough Republicans would defy Bush and vote to override his veto.

The breakdown over what was once considered a slam-dunk way to reduce the nation's shamefully large population of uninsured children carries ominous implications for more ambitious health care reform efforts. If Republicans are willing to sacrifice kids to fend off the specter of "federalized medicine," the legislative consensus needed for meaningful reform is nowhere in sight.

No one should doubt that Bush will follow through with his veto threat. He's a lame duck with nothing to lose by choosing the insurance and tobacco industries over children.

But there are Republicans, including Smith, facing re-election in 2008 who would benefit by distancing themselves from the Decider. They might shed some of that baggage by joining Democrats in overriding the SCHIP veto and reminding voters that they understand the importance of providing health insurance to the nation's children.