Missing from most news reports on the debate over the State Children's Health Insturance Program (S-CHIP) is one reason why getting an override on the president's veto will be tough: tobacco money.
Tobacco campaign contributions, that is. The legislation pays for expansion of the children's health program with an increase in tobacco taxes, by increasing the levy from 39 cents to $1 a pack.
Problem is so many members of Congress take tobacco campaign contributions. Overall, the industry has sunk nearly $25 million into federal elections since the 2000 elections, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Nearly 80 percent of that cash went to Republicans. (Indeed, President George W. Bush himself took more than a quarter million from tobacco interests for his two presidential elections.)
One of the leaders of the tobacco pack, so to speak, is Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who has taken nearly half a million dollars--$482,000--in campaign contributions from tobacco interests. McConnell is one of the major Senate opponents of the legislation.
Yes, tobacco interests are a homegrown interest in Kentucky. But so are kids without health insurance. In Kentucky alone, 157,996 kids would qualify for S-CHIP under the proposed expansion of the popular program, according to the nonprofit group FamiliesUSA.
McConnell's work opposing S-CHIP on behalf of tobacco interests prompted Public Campaign Action Fund to create a web ad showing children selling lemonade and emptying their piggy banks. They are hoping to save and bundle enough money give in the form of campaign donations for Sen. McConnell so that he will pay as much attention to them as he does to his big campaign donors.
Of course, McConnell isn't the only one in Congress beholden to tobacco interests. As the day approaches for the vote to override the president's veto, watch very carefully. You will be able to see who lawmakers consider to be their true constituents--campaign donors or kids who need health insurance.