Topping the Democrats’ to-do list when they return to Washington is the reauthorization of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). The House and Senate passed two different versions of the bill before August recess and now must reconcile them before sending it to President Bush’s desk for a veto.

Although the Senate bill passed with a veto-proof majority, Democrats won’t be able to push their new bill through the House as easily. Just five Republicans defected from party leadership, giving Bush the backup he needs to veto this massive expansion of government-provided health care. My Heritage Foundation colleague Ernest Istook, the former Oklahoma congressman, explains in this video why SCHIP is no longer about helping only low-income children, but rather a path liberals want to use to bring socialized medicine to America.

The question is whether conservatives can do any thing to stop SCHIP’s expansion? With the program expiring on Sept. 30, Democrats are under the gun to get something done. That means they might just be in the mood to compromise.

Conservatives have spent the past couple weeks gearing up for the SCHIP fight, calling it a new-look HillaryCare. They have plenty of information to show the dangerous fiscal consequences of heading down this path, such as the reliance on tobacco taxes to pay for SCHIP’s expansion. The House bill raises taxes by 45 cents and the Senate bill increases them by 61 cents. Those tax hikes would be disastrous for state finances. What’s worse is that millions of Americans would have to start smoking just to pay for this new entitlement.

Just as troublesome is the move by liberals to strip out language in the bill to eliminate the so-called Medicare trigger. That language was part of the controversial Medicare prescription drug bill that narrowly passed in 2003. Fiscal conservatives insisted the language be included in that bill to force the president and Congress to address Medicare’s unfunded obligation. However, in a move that would allow Congress to ignore the $32 trillion unfunded obligation of Medicare, liberals inserted a provision in the SCHIP bill to eliminate the trigger. The non-partisan Concord Coalition called the move a mistake.

Given Medicare’s growing burden on our economy, it’s no coincidence that the trigger was "sprung" in April when the Medicare trustees issued their annual report. But will Congress do anything about it? Under the current law, they cannot simply turn a blind eye toward Medicare’s rapidly increasing costs. But if liberals get their way with the SCHIP bill, it would allow them to do just that.

What’s worse is that while Congress removes the trigger — the only entitlement spending warning in law — liberals are trying to create one more entitlement by modifying the nature of SCHIP (particularly in the House version of the bill). This debate clearly illustrates the left’s mentality toward health care and federal spending. It also pinpoints exactly where liberals are trying to take America.

Source: Redstate