It's a common theme among conservatives to mock liberal plans for government by saying "It's for the children." The inside joke is that an expansion of government can be rationalized, in the liberal mind, by an appeal to children. But sometimes the joke is close to the truth.

An editorial in today's Wall Street Journal points to exhibit A: SCHIP, or as it is more formally known, the State Children's Health Insurance Program. As Grace-Marie Turner has pointed out in this space, the states are using money for this "children's" program to enroll more adults in government programs.

"And no wonder," says the Journal: "The Schip funding structure provides incentives for running over budget. In three-year periods, all unspent Schip allocations across the 50 states are tallied up and redistributed. A state that exceeds its allotment gets more money from a state that didn't. In the 14 states that went over budget in 2005, 55 percent of Schip recipients were adults."

Like Medicaid, SCHIP is an invitation for states to game federal taxpayers. And like Medicaid, it's an open invitation to further destroy the private-market provision for financing health care. As the Journal notes, it's HillaryCare on the installment plan.