Iraq vs. what else we could have bought

Should we think very carefully before we add 4 million children to the State Children's Health Insurance program rolls? Should we have frank and cool-headed discussions about entitlement, dependence on governmental support, expansion of services to families and individuals who in the past would have been considered middle-income?

An estimated $7 billion annual increase for the next five years is a huge sum of money, and worthy of our scrutiny and prudence.

It all makes sense to me until I lay it alongside the figure of $577 billion spent on Iraq and Afghanistan, and the $190 billion more that's being requested.

Addressing the health needs of children is an investment, not a gamble. It is putting money toward prevention, not dragging out a cause that, each day, becomes clearer it is one we cannot win.

Sure, let's be prudent before we expand care to children who might have other means of coverage, or before we commit ourselves to long-term health spending we may not be able to sustain. But let's apply that same prudence to military spending that seems to be without boundaries or benchmarks.

You can't take $577 billion out of the budget without thinking about what else it could have bought.