Public Campaign

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.)