A tax on tobacco is a regressive tax, and so equity-based opposition to a tobacco tax increase generally makes sense. However, if the tax will be used to fund an expansion of a fiscally progressive program, then it is possible that the net result will be progressive. I spent some time this morning compiling info that would give some indication of how the SCHIP expansion would shake out. Well, someone has already done the yeoman's work and crunched the numbers.

An interesting article from this weekend's New York Times that let's the wealthy share their views on why they're so rich. Other very wealthy men in the new Gilded Age talk of themselves as having a flair for business not unlike Derek Jeter's "unique talent" for baseball, as Leo J. Hindery Jr. put it. "I think there are people, including myself at certain times in my career," Mr. Hindery said, "who because of their uniqueness warrant whatever the market will bear."

Some good news: key Republican Senators are defying President Bush on SCHIP. From CQ (sorry, subscription only): The chief Republican architects of a deal to expand a children's health insurance program are defending the proposal against criticism by President Bush, who has threatened to "resist" it. This week, members of the Senate Finance Committee tentatively agreed on a renewal and expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), which covers about 6 million children from families that are low-income but not poor enough to qualify for Medicaid.

The evidence keeps piling up that the budget deficits aren't increasing interest rates and aren't harming the economy. But deficits aren't just an economic problem- they're a moral problem, says economist Andrew Samwick: Suppose for the sake of argument that deficits don't put much upward pressure on interest rates. Even in that case, they still have to be financed at the existing interest rate, and the burden of financing them has to be borne by someone in the future. Taxing someone in 2020 to pay for our spending binge in 2003 violates my notions of fairness, and that is a substantially more salient issue here than any additional concerns about efficiency. Hold on there- that's a bit too simple.