Soaking Smokers to Fund Child Health Insurance Is All Wet

Coverage of the latest partisan deliberations on Capitol Hill about children’s health insurance reveals the futility of expecting sound public policy to emerge from purely political processes (“House Passes Children’s Health Bill,” Washington Post, September 26). As strident statesmen impugn each others’ dignity and motives by pandering to the “children,” we are inching closer to a dysfunctional government health care system. The disingenuous political posturing by those who seek to gain capital from comparing funding the Iraq war to the interests of our children only shows the level of subterfuge and opportunism we have come to expect from our brightest and best national leaders.

Ralph W. Conner (rconner@heartland.org) is local legislation manager for The Heartland Institute.