Domenici’s Unfortunate Support for Massive SCHIP Expansion

Recently, I criticized Rep. Heather Wilson’s support for a massive tax hike to expand SCHIP. What I didn’t mention was that retiring New Mexico Sen. Pete Domenici supported the same plan to expand the program by raising taxes, despite President Bush’s veto. Domenici argues his case here.
While Domenici is certainly more conservative than Wilson, this is not the first time he has been “off the reservation,” especially on health care. In fact, it is particularly ironic that Domenici supported SCHIP expansion at the same time as he has finally succeeded in pushing his mental health parity legislation through the Senate.
For someone who claims not to support government-run health care, he sure likes to dabble in ways that are bound to make insurance and health care in general more expensive, thus forcing more and more Americans onto the government dole that he claims to abhor.