Clinton Joins Trent Lott in Rejecting Health Care for Kids

Beginning of article

President Bill Clinton spilled a lot of blood, much of it his own, in trying to give health coverage to all Americans. No matter. Now, his chumminess with Senate Republican leader Trent Lott matters more than expanding health care for kids.

When Lott called Clinton demanding that the president intervene to kill a kid-care amendment to their sacred budget deal, Clinton responded, "Yessir!" Lott won, kids' health care lost.

No politician has made better political use of attacks on cigarette companies than Clinton did in his 1996 campaign. No matter. The amendment Lott wanted killed, proposed by the unlikely duo of Sens. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and Edward M. Kennedy, …