Democratic and Liberal political analysis and commentary

The Senate Finance Committee, with broad bipartisan support, has agreed on a cigarette tax increase, which will be used to pay for the expansion of SCHIP, the childrens's health care program.

The New York Times covered it well this morning:

Under current law, the federal government provides $5 billion a year to states for the Children’s Health Insurance Program, which covered 7.4 million people at some time in the last year. The bipartisan Senate plan would add $35 billion, bringing the five-year total to $60 billion. House Democrats, by adding $50 billion to the current level of spending, would increase the total to $75 billion.

Mr. Bush, by contrast, has proposed an increase of $5 billion and has denounced the Democratic proposals as a step toward “government-run health care” for all.

For several weeks, the White House has been predicting a showdown with Congress over the program, which was created in 1997 with broad bipartisan support to insure children in families who have too much income to qualify for Medicaid but not enough to afford private insurance.

The usual argument for not increasing tobacco taxes is that the tax affects the poor much more than any other group. However, in my opinion, the poor have absolutely no business smoking.

I'm not just saying that either. One of the reasons I quit 12 years ago is because it was pinching my family budget. With two little girls to take care of on my own, I felt it was only fair to them. They deserved the extra money, and they deserved to have mommy around to take care of them.

It is a proven fact that raising the tobacco tax prevents young people from picking up the habit in the first place. That's a good enough reason for me.

In Iowa, cigarettes cost about 5 dollars per pack. A person living on welfare or working a minimum wage job simply cannot afford to put their filthy habit ahead of the health, well-being and financial stability of their family.