The U.S. House and Senate were right in voting to end federal Medicaid and Medicare payments for erectile dysfunction drugs such as Viagra.

But the new rule regarding impotence drugs should not have had to be a part of a legislative package extending medical help for the poor and providing unemployment benefit aid to states hit by Hurricane Katrina.

Legislation ending Medicare and Medicaid payments for Viagra and drugs like it should have been able to stand alone on its own merits.

Several attempts in recent years to end the federal subsidies in question failed.

Under Medicaid, which is the state-federal program for the poor, states still will be allowed to subsidize Viagra and other impotence drugs if they determine such drugs are medically necessary. But the states no longer will receive federal matching grants.

According to U.S. Rep. Nathan Deal, R-Ga., the government could save $690 million over five years by halting the federal subsidies for sexual performance drugs. The measure approved by Congress and sent on to President George W. Bush would end the federal Medicaid payments in question as of Jan. 1, 2006; Medicare payments for such drugs would be terminated as of Jan. 1, 2007.

The Medicare and Medicaid programs are a product of a caring and generous nation. But lifestyle prescription drugs such as Viagra should never have been made eligible for coverage by those programs.