Refusing to let the perfect be the enemy of the good is the key to political progress. That's why the S.C. Senate Finance Committee's new approach to paying for the Medicaid program deserves to become law.

The committee's plan, unanimously approved Tuesday, would raise the state tax on cigarettes to 53 cents while phasing down the S.C. marginal-income-tax rate on individuals and businesses by 2 percentage points over 15 years. Abandoned, in the face of a veto threat Tuesday from Gov. Mark Sanford, is a Senate Finance subcommittee's proposal to pay for the cigarette tax increase with a 4 percent phasedown in the state sales tax on food. This was a better tradeoff than the income tax, but that's not important right now.

What matters more is the $171 million annual boost the committee proposal would bring to the perpetually strapped Medicaid program, the state's basic health care plan for the poor. About 75 percent of that money would come from federal matches leveraged by an increase in state Medicaid spending.

Many S.C. residents live below the poverty line. By law, they are entitled to medical care at emergency rooms regardless of ability to pay, so emergency rooms are their "default" health plan.

But hospitals don't absorb the unpaid bills of the poor. They pass these costs on to folks who can pay, directly or through their health insurance.

Full state funding of Medicaid gives the poor an avenue to preventive health care, resulting in fewer emergency room visits. It's a less costly, more compassionate way to meet the health needs of the poor.

The S.C. House exhibited compassion in its Medicaid bill but proposes refinancing the state's tobacco-settlement bonds to meet the increased costs. The Finance Committee's bill is more responsible. The House plan would generate new money once, while higher cigarette taxes would generate new money for years to come.

This is the better way to go. But Sanford should stand ready to bludgeon other legislators the same way he bludgeoned the Finance Committee members to get his income-tax trade. It will take no less, we're guessing, to make his preferred Medicaid repair happen.