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CBS chose to relegate the feature-style brain damage story to late in its line-up as it adopted a crisp newsy pace for the top of its newscast, starting with Capitol Hill. It was the only network to cover a pair of legislative proposals there--on tobacco regulation and healthcare reform. Nancy Cordes kicked off with what she called a "landmark" Senate proposal to put cigarettes under FDA regulation. It would allow the feds to police advertising, labeling, marketing, nicotine levels and non-tobacco additives. "Misleading terms like light, mild or low tar would be eliminated while warning labels would be bigger and bolder." Cordes found divisions among Big Tobacco: most of the industry resists FDA controls--but market leader Philip Morris has "broken from the pack," to coin a phrase, welcoming "predictability and clear standards."
Next Thalia Assuras brought us dueling plans for extending federal funding for the state-run S-CHIP--the State Children's Health Insurance Program--that currently provides subsidized healthcare for 5m children in uninsured working class households. A bill in the House of Representatives seeks to expand the program to cover 6m more children at an increased five-year cost of $50bn; the Senate has 3m more at $35bn; the President's preferred hike is $5bn. George Bush and his supporters contend that "the bills go to far" calling them "a slippery slope towards a universal healthcare plan." Whichever S-CHIP emerges is veto bait.
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