United Liberty
Cigarettes
Smoke Up to Save the Children
Fri, 04/10/2009 - 6:21am | posted by Matt Wittlief
Earlier this year, Congress passed H.R. 2 - the Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2009 or CHIPRA (an expansion of S-CHIP). It was signed into law by Obama on February 4 after sailing through both the House (on January 14) and the Senate (on the 29th). According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report on January 13 which analyzed the bill as it was submitted by the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, the legislation will add an average of $6.4B per year (yes, only ten digits!) to the federal budget. This will be offset by excise tax increases on tobacco products.
Obama’s First Tax Hike Takes Effect
Thu, 04/02/2009 - 10:24am | posted by Jason Pye
Barack Obama’s first tax hike, a 62-cent increase on tobacco products, went into effect yesterday. The tax hurts the poor the most. One one hand they want us to believe that these taxes discourage and decrease smoking. On the other hand they say that they’ll fund various healthcare programs, in this case, SCHIP. That doesn’t make much sense.
