July 10, 2007 | By Nathaniel Ward

Liberals push for a new entitlement

Liberals in Congress are looking to create a vast new entitlement—under the guise of “helping the children”—by expanding a health care program for low-income children to cover families making $80,000 a year. In fact, many families that would be covered under this program for poor children would also be hit by taxes designed for high earners.

The plan calls for a tremendous increase the number of people eligible for the program, which would cover families making up to 400 percent of the federal poverty level, or $80,000 a year. In fact, according to a new analysis from Heritage’s Center for Data Analysis, about 70,000 families would receive federal health care funding because of their “poverty” even as they pay the Alternative Minimum Tax because of their “wealth.”

This brings about an interesting problem for big-government planners. “According to the federal government,” Heritage expert Rea Hederman writes, “thousands of American families are both poor and high-income—simultaneously.”

If liberals in Congress and their special interest friends get their way, explain Heritage experts J.D. Foster and Nicola Moore, the program’s costs could increase fivefold. This, they write, is “a thinly veiled attempt to turn [the Children’s State Health Insurance Program] into an open-ended entitlement.”

The program’s expansion would be paid for by an additional 61-cent federal tax on cigarettes—a 150 percent increase. Of course, this makes SCHIP dependent on ensuring people continue to smoke—even while other parts of the government push for people to quit the habit.

Nathaniel Ward is the Editor of MyHeritage.org—a website for members and supporters of The Heritage Foundation.