Stop hugging trees and start hugging kids.

Now that Earth Day has come and gone, it's time again for Cover the Uninsured Week of 2007 (good thing it has its very own week or else the uninsured might be forgotten with their mere 484 mentions so far this year in the headlines or lead paragraphs of the nation's major newspapers). This year, organizers say that they will be "demonstrating broad support for the reauthorization of SCHP and the need to cover America's uninsured children."

In case you don't have your decoder ring with you, "reauthorizing" CHIP really means expanding CHIP, which is simply part of the larger effort in bringing more people into government-paid (and rationed) health care--we're talking everyone from more kids at higher incomes to adults this time around. States cheer the CHIP expans...er... reauthorization effort because it comes with that free federal money.

Whatever the policy debate in your state, take notice of the Left's tactics. A quick glance at the Cover the Uninsured website and those of their fellow footsoldiers at advocacy organizations like the Children's Defense Fund shows just how good they are at peddling sob stories to manipulate policy debates. Even so, I was still appalled to get this e-mail (PDF) a week or so ago asking for stories about children who died due to lack of health coverage. They even request pictures of the kids!

That's what we compete against this week... or for that matter, every day. Unfortunately, we too easily cede the argument about insurance, agree that everyone needs it, and focus on how we get everyone covered. The Left's solution, of course, is a big government program. The Right is all too willing to go along just to get something done. A good solid debate on the policy would be nice, but the uninsured have become the Left's marketing campaign for big government, and a vehicle for advancing the agenda using emotion.