Democrats obviously haven’t thought far enough ahead about their plans to fund SCHIP. On the other hand, Senator Trent Lott has:
“They fund it with a 61 cent a pack tax increase and say by the way, that will discourage people from smoking. That’s good. But the problem is if people do stop smoking you won’t have the money and the program won’t be paid for.” from FOX NEWS SUNDAY.
Where was this guy when I had the brilliant idea to start a swear jar? I was going to put a dollar into the swear jar every time I said a bad word. Then I was going to use that money to buy health insurance. Turned out, I completely stopped swearing and now I don’t have any health insurance.
Maybe Louise’s idea to fund SCHIP would work better. Although, she hasn’t really explained what should be done when people stop drinking.
No, Trent Lott is right. The Bush administration didn’t get the honor of the having the highest rate of non-military federal government growth since LBJ by increasing taxes on things like cigarettes or alcohol. Whether it’s for military reasons or not, they understand that if you want to spend $55 billion for this or $70 billion for that, you lower the taxes for the wealthy. You also lower taxes on things that will benefit the wealthy the most, like capital gains and dividends.
Sure, we’re left with the largest budget deficits in U.S. history. But that’s how things get done in Washington these days. People don’t like taxes. But a budget deficit? People don’t care about that. It doesn’t really affect them. It’s genius. They’ve come up with a way to lower taxes and still spend more money, who wouldn’t vote for them?
