Dems to propose $35 billion tax increase
July 11th, 2007 by Steve
I used to think the thing congressional Democrats were best at was wasting taxpayer dollars. However, it’s pretty clear that the Republicans have trumped them in this regard. Since Democratic congressional approval numbers aren’t dropping fast enough for Nancy Pelosi, it looks like the Dems will have to try something new to reach the abysmal depths of GOP approval ratings.
It looks like the Democrats just re-found an old niche: Raising taxes! Of course, it’s for the children. Here’s the low-down from WaPo:
Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said Democrats were looking to increase spending on the State Children’s Health Insurance Program by $35 billion over five years - $15 billion less than they had originally discussed.
Emerging from a meeting with other members of the Senate Finance Committee, Hatch said Democrats would pay for the expansion through an increase in the federal excise tax on tobacco, which now stands at 39 cents a pack.
Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., the committee’s chairman, said lawmakers were working out final details of a package that he planned to unveil later this week. He and other lawmakers declined to discuss the details.
The Bush administration has proposed adding $5 billion to the program over the next five years - on top of the $25 billion available under current spending levels.
The 10-year-old program subsidizes the cost of insuring those children living in families that earn too much to qualify for Medicaid but not enough to afford private insurance.
And here’s how the new tax is likely to impact smokers:
Overall, it would take a tax increase of 61 cents on a pack of cigarettes, as well as a commensurate tax hike on cigars and smokeless tobacco, to generate about $35 billion in additional revenue.
I’ve got some simple questions and comments for the morons and nitwits running DC at the moment:
- Why is the federal government in favor of poor health for children? Considering the success factors of the War on Drugs, War on Poverty, War on Terror, etc.; we can certainly expect more sick kids as this War on the Uninsured takes place.
- If you are so damned hip on sin taxes, why don’t you tax congressional visits to houses of ill repute?
- You wouldn’t control Congress right now if it wasn’t for an awful lot of Americans who wanted to shut down the GOP spending machine. Now you’re boldly flipping off the same people who put you in office.
- Where is the constitutional authority for the federal government to pay for things for only certain classes of people? If we can pay for children’s healthcare, perhaps we should start programs to buy left-handed people golf clubs, stiletto heels for sex workers, needles for junkies, suntan lotion for fair-skinned people, as well as donkeys and gerbils for people into certain depraved sexual activities. After all, fair is fair.
- Why is the federal government paying for a state program? Isn’t that what state taxes are for?
- For those politicians who believe that redistribution of other people’s money is a good thing, I’ve got a suggestion which would pay for this program, and many more. How about an additional 10 percent income tax on every redistributionist politician? Additionally, we’ll throw a 25 percent tax on their campaign accounts. Then we’ll hit their leadership PACs and other money-funneling projects, too. Let’s see how they like paying for programs out of their own pockets, as opposed to the pockets of their constituents.
At one time, Republicans would be already be screaming loudly about such a program. Now it seems they’ve replaced their cajones for a copy of The Communist Manifesto.
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Brett wrote on 07/13/07 at 10:25 am :
Has anyone checked to see who are members of this hated class of smokers?
My visual survey is that it consists heavily of the poor and elderly and/or underage. As long as government is allowed to abuse a class rather than see them as their constituents (and generally the people they most often champion) they will continue to abuse them to no end. Examples: WWII Germany, Slavery, Sectarian violence in middle east/africa, general bashing of repubs on dems and dems on repubs. Note this is generally the same group of people asked to pay for education here in Iowa based on their profinity for state run gambling joints.
GordonUnleashed » Blog Archive » Dems plan tax increase to support international smuggling wrote on 07/19/07 at 6:10 pm :
[…] bad enough that congressional Dems are going to raise taxes. But in this case, they are specifically targeting cigar smokers. The only saving grace is that […]