Conservative SCHIP Plan Going Ka-Bluey

Conservatives spent their August recess [1] trying to explain (using copious misinformation) how they could be against covering more kids with health insurance.

It doesn't seem to have gone well, with polls [2] and editorials [3] squarely [4] in support [5] of congressional bills [6] expanding the State Children's Health Insurance Program.

So now it's desperation time. Heritage Foundation's Robert Bluey, in a Town Hall column [7], instructs his fellow conservatives that Democrats "just might be in the mood to compromise to avoid a veto" -- ignoring that the Senate bill already is a bipartisan compromise and passed by a veto-proof margin.

Part of Bluey's grand compromise strategy (which, of course, involves no actual compromising on the part of conservatives) rests on the "plenty of data" conservatives have gathered "to show the dangerous fiscal consequences" of the current bills.

This data allegedly schools the states that bills' tobacco taxes would be "disastrous for state finances," and the attempt to relieve squeezed middle-class familes would "bust state budgets."

One small problem: the nation's governors aren't buying it.

As conservative columnist Robert Novak [8] recently lamented: "Most of the dwindled contingent of Republican governors have abandoned conservative principles to embrace the Democratic-sponsored extension of the State Children's Health Insurance Program...."

Even the GOP governor of Kentucky has broken with his senator, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell [9], to support SCHIP.

One suspects the governors know a little bit more about their budgets than the conservative propaganda mills do.

Remember when conservatives wanted to "devolve" power away from Washington towards the states?

When the State Children's Health Insurance Program was enacted in 1997, empowering states was part of the plan, giving states flexibility [6] in determining eligibility for coverage.

But now that states are acting compassionately and broadening eligibility so all kids can actually be covered, conservatives no longer want to empower the states. They want to lecture and limit the states.

No one bought their misinformation during the August recess. And September's not looking much better for them.