As we consider our goals for the New Year, what is more important to American taxpayers, Free Viagra or essential food

According to our congressional leaders, Viagra is the priority.

This sounds like a bad joke. It isn't. Congress decided this week to restore Medicare funding for Viagra and other Erectile-dysfunction drugs at a cost of $90 million for 2006. To do so, they had to cut other programs, mostly for our country's most vulnerable adults and children.

Rep. Bill Thomas, R-Bakersfield, led the charge in favor of Viagra funding, insisting that Congress keep its promise to the drug industry -- which had expected ED drugs to be reimbursed under Medicare in 2006. He apparently thought it was unfair when, a few months ago, Congress decided to instead use those $90 million in taxpayer money for relief efforts after Hurricane Katrina.

In the ideal world, we would have enough federal dollars for disaster relief, food stamps and Viagra for seniors. In the real world, however, tax cuts and the war in Iraq have meant that billions of dollars in essential programs have to be cut.

And so, Congress decided to come to the aid of pharmaceutical companies even if it meant harming parents who were counting on after-school programs, pregnant women who were counting on prenatal care and low-income families who were counting on food stamps. Since they had already made tremendous cuts to the No Child Left Behind education program, community colleges, and maternal and children's health programs in earlier versions of the same funding bill, Congress chose to pay for Medicare coverage of Viagra by shifting $120 million in funds intended to prepare for the flu pandemic.

That seems crazy, but it is really just smoke and mirrors. Congress passed a different bill that provides more than $3.5 billion on pandemic flu prevention and treatment efforts -- adding that same $3.5 billion to our deficit for the year.

So in truth, there is no Christmas miracle of genuine savings to make up for the $90 million for Viagra and other ED drugs -- other than cuts in health and child care programs and an increase in our national deficit. The kids who believe in Santa now will be paying that debt for many years to come.

The best part about the drug is that it can work in as little as 14 minutes and has a proven safety record.

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