The Deseret News has an interesting take on what is a local story for its Utah readership: the State Children’s Health Insurance Program confrontation in Washington between Sen. Orrin Hatch and former Utah Gov. Mike Levitt, now secretary of HHS. Hatch partnered with Ted Kennedy a decade ago to create the S-CHIP program — a moment of clarity about the impressive skills of the then-minority Democratic staff on Capitol Hill and the cluelessness of the then-GOP majority. Now Hatch is an advocate of the program’s expansion, while Levitt properly warns that expanding S-CHIP with higher taxes on cigarettes would be a one-two punch landed on taxpayers, particularly because there is solid evidence for a “crowd-out effect” in which up to half of children in S-CHIP would have been enrolled in private health plans without it, largely or entirely free of government subsidy.

Here’s Levitt argument in sum:

“An increase in federal cigarette taxes is also among the most regressive revenue-raising measures one could propose,” Leavitt said in his 10-page letter outlining the administration’s opposition to the bill. Leavitt also said the bill would “undermine the common goal of an affordable private health insurance market and an effective safety net so that the vulnerable get help from the government when needed.”

To which Hatch replies:

“This is a good bill,” Hatch said. “It accomplishes what we have set out to do — to take care of the children. Yes, I wish it did not cost what it does, but I am persuaded this is necessary spending when I think of the 6 million American children who are leading healthier lives because of our vision and commitment.”

It’s all about the children, yes. Thanks, Sen. Lovejoy . A great moment in conservative leadership.