terratogen wrote:

n an overwhelming majority of 17 to 4, and in defiance of a threatened veto by President Bush, the US Senate Finance Committee approved a bill to expand child healthcare using a large increase in tobacco tax. Most of the Republicans on the Committee joined the Democrats to vote in favour of the bill.

I'm glad that Bush is going to veto this piece of crap. I'm of the opinion that ideally, your tax dollars should go toward something you would want to support. Smokers don't give a shit about your fucking kids. Smokers probably don't give a shit about you either... Hell, smokers don't even care about themselves.

I'm not necessarily saying that this bill is good, or necessarily that excise taxes are the way to fund schools, but I definitely take issue with the notion that individuals should only be taxed for those things that they want to pay for. The fact of the matter is that the majority of people don't want to pay for anything that benefits anyone else. The problem is that our system only works because the number of people paying is higher than the number of people taking advantage of the results.

This is decried as unfair, constantly. Unfortunately, the logical conclusion of the argument is everyone paying for their own education, health care, police services, fire services, and on and on, and in no way is that system either humane or sustainable.

In short, smokers can stop smoking if the price is too high. Education carries a societal benefit that far outweighs their right to pleasure themselves while polluting my air and destroying their lungs (oh, and raising my insurance premiums, which only further demonstrates the necessary interconnectedness of a society).

There's probably more people who smoke who are struggling financially than there are financially secure.

Then they've made a poor choice. A two-pack-a-day smoker probably spends upwards of $3000 a year on cigarettes. If you're making less than 30k, you shouldn't be spending 10+% of your income that way. Yes, yes, I'm elitist and smug, whatever.

RE: Senate Panel Approves Huge Tobacco Tax To Fund Child Healthcare