Hardheaded Democrats and recalcitrant Republicans need to give ground on the State Children’s Health Insurance Program.

If they do, the results are likely to be a program that expands coverage to more poor children, but a program neither side necessarily likes.

President Bush earlier vetoed a $35 billion hike for SCHIP. He was against the price tag but offered a modest $10 billion increase. Now he says that his opposition isn’t about the price tag but about the policy. He has a point.

States have SCHIP in a mess. Because the program has no uniform rules for granting coverage, the president wants to limit the maximum income of a family of four to $62,000 a year for eligibility. Some Democrats want the states to continue setting the caps.

Both sides are also far apart on how to pay for the program, but the encouraging sign is that both sides want to generate revenue to offset the cost.

The Democrats’ proposed 156 percent hike in federal cigarette taxes is popular with 70 percent of people in a Kaiser Family Foundation poll taken last week. But the president says he will not sign a bill that contains that proposal. He wants to hike drug costs for veterans who are not disabled and drug and doctors’ costs for Medicare recipients.

The president’s not on sound ground on paying for the bill. He opposes a tax that people don’t have to pay while embracing cost hikes for medical care for older Americans and veterans.

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