Children's health program budget under fire

"I thought this was the United States Senate, and if it is the United States Senate — which I have my doubts about — you vote against a program, even if it means more money for your state, if it's bad," Lott lamented. "But I don't think we do that anymore."

Lott and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., offered a scaled-down, $33 billion alternative that would limit eligibility for the program to those it was originally designed to cover — people at 200 percent of poverty, or $41,300 for a family of four.

Since the program's inception, the Bush administration has issued waivers to several states that allowed them to extend coverage to children with higher incomes and to adults. Nineteen states have done so, allowing families earning as much as $82,600 to be covered.

Republicans accuse Democrats of using the program as a way to extend government health insurance to millions of people. In a veto threat issued Monday, the administration said the measure "essentially extends a welfare benefit to middle-class households" and "goes too far in federalizing health care."

The bipartisan bill would gradually move adults who don't have children out of SCHIP, giving states the option of covering them through Medicaid.

The government also would lower payments for parents' coverage and be barred from issuing new waivers allowing states to cover parents. But states would still have the option of providing coverage to pregnant women through SCHIP.

In the Senate, many Republicans say they're sympathetic to Bush's criticism that the measure covers adults and children it was never intended to, but those worries take a back seat to their states' interests.

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