NY Times 12/27/2006

Thanks to the 2001 tax cut law, over the next four years the federal government will forgo some $30 billion so America’s wealthiest taxpayers can claim bigger write-offs for expenses like dependents and mortgage interest. One-third of those tax cuts kicked in this year, with the rest scheduled to take effect in 2008 and 2010. By then, most of the advantage will go to the top 0.3 percent of Americans — those making more than $1 million a year — who have until now been required to limit the amounts they are allowed to claim for things like the spousal exemption or the mortgage costs on a vacation home.

Over roughly the same period, the government is looking at a $14 billion shortfall in its share of financing for a crucial federal-state program that provides health insurance to poor children, the so-called Schip, or State Children’s Health Insurance Program. Without full financing, 1.5 million children will be cut from the program or underserved.

Depriving children of adequate health care while giving the rich tax benefits that were intended for average Americans is flat-out wrong. The new Democratic-controlled Congress must move quickly to prevent that. When it convenes in the new year, Congress should pass a law to freeze the tax write-offs at 2007 levels. That will not cause anyone’s taxes to rise. But it would free up the money that is needed for children’s health insurance.