A children's health care bill supported by the Democrats in Congress has come under fire by the President and some Republicans as being too much of a move towards the socialization of health care and merely political ploy. The House-Senate accord would increase tobacco taxes in order to cover children's health care. When asked about whether or not he would support a tobacco tax increase, President Bush said, "We don't need to raise taxes." He also added that the Democrats were trying to expand the health care initiative beyond just covering health insurance for poor children.
Although President Bush wants to play it off as just a bunch of Democrats trying to push their own agenda, but there has been much Republican support for this bill. Republican Governors Sonny Purdue (GA) and Arnold Schwarzeneggar (CA) have expressed support over the bill. The Terminator even went so far as to say that taking money away from the nation's children is not a way to reduce the national deficit and that Pres. Bush should find another way to do that.
So, what I really want to know, is whether or not W thinks it's okay to spend billions of dollars a week on a seemingly never-ending war, but we can't raise tobacco taxes to ensure that our children can go to the doctor. Seems like someone was willing to say a lot more when he was trying to get elected a couple years ago. Not so compassionate now, huh?
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It's very infuriating isn't it!? The war in Iraq has cost, according to one site, $453 billion dollars so far...(check out costofwar.com) They estimate that that money could have insured over 271 million children, over three times the number of children under 18 we actually have in this country...domestic issues have sadly taken a major back seat to foreign policy across the board...
I think that tobacco taxes are a great way to raise money. They discourage behaviors that are known to cause cancer, and they can provide funds for otherwise unfunded programs.
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