Washington Memo: A Stinker for the GOP

Republican Congresswoman Heather Wilson of New Mexico worries that people might get the wrong impression when her party votes down children's health care. "It's a Republican program," laments Wilson, referring to the State Children's Health Insurance Program. "It was created by a Republican Congress."

So why are President Bush and House GOP leaders now siding against poor sick kids? Because a Democratic bill would enlarge the program--by hiking tobacco taxes--to include children of lower-middle-class and of even slightly more affluent folks who, say, recently lost their jobs and can't make ends meet. The $35 billion expansion, critics warn, is the Dems'...

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