FOXNews.com - Congressional Democrats Propose Cigarette Tax Hike to Pay for Children's Health Coverage - Politics | Republican Party | Democratic Party | Political Spectrum
Do you guys ever get tired of being lied to? The Democrats have their gstrings in a wad to get this expansion of health care program passed, but they're being pretty dishonest about how it will be paid for.
"Why, cigarette smokers will pay for it."
It'll take 22 million new cigarette smokers to pay for this thing. While Dirty Harry says:
Quote:
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Harry Reid, D-Nev., said in an interview Friday, noting that the plan would not add to the deficit. "The health of the children is extremely important," he said. "In the long run, maybe it'll stop people from smoking." |
Talk about a shell game. What they're telling you is that it'll basically be free because those wretched cigarette smokers will pay for it, and it will cut down on the number of wretched cigarette smokers at the same time!
The government school educated populace doesn't see the problem here because they see a new entitlement dangling in front of their face. If Dirty Harry is right, the revenue stream intended to pay for this program will continue to shrink and they won't be able to pay for it.
If he is wrong, it'll mean 22 million new smokers, most of whom are poor and minority, will be paying for it. 1/3 of adults living in poverty smoke cigarettes. 35% of people without high school education smoke. The rate at which successful and educated people smoke is lower.
This means Democrats are introducing a regressive tax. If this program is so damn vital, why don't they pay for it by taxing something everyone needs? Like water and food? In another generation, even poor people won't be dumb enough to smoke cigarettes - at least not many of them.
The plan is for them to get their hooks in, get more people dependent on the government (why buy your own health care when you can qualify for the government to pay for it) and then once the revenue stream starts to die out, they'll just yank the money from some other target like lumping even more taxes on the productive people.