Cigarette taxes may pay for children’s healthcare, to conservatives’ chagrin

This is bullshit, plain and simple.

If we are going to tax "sin," and we have been doing that for as long as I can remember, let's at least start with the "seven deadlies," or the so-called cardinal sins, one of which is greed.

It really wouldn't be so hard to do and the tax revenue would buy the best health-care available for every American, not just children.

As I have often asked, what good does it do to have health care for kids when their parent(s) is/are a mess, physically and psychologically?

TheHill.com - Cigarette taxes may pay for children’s healthcare, to conservatives’ chagrin:

Many senators — including the GOP leader — anticipate bipartisan support for a proposed cigarette-tax hike to help pay for expanding children’s health insurance coverage. But don’t tell that to conservatives.

A small but potentially powerful group of Republicans is vowing to fight any tax increase on principle, even a new tax being eyed to help fund the state children’s health insurance program (SCHIP).

“I’m not in favor of raising taxes, period,” said Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.), whose state struggled mightily with unpaid SCHIP bills this year before relief came on the war supplemental.

Chambliss and fellow Republicans make clear that they share Democrats’ desire to cover low-income children. But ideological resistance to new taxes, even on the politically vulnerable tobacco industry, clouds the picture for the new SCHIP bill, which must be finished by September and could cost up to $50 billion.

“It’s incumbent upon us to present options for how you get there, how you fix healthcare, without raising taxes,” Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) said.