Tobacco Taxes and Child Healthcare

Tobacco kills a lot of people a year, maybe this is one of the reason that president bush is trying to raise the tax on it. I would agree with president bush, tobacco is a drug and if people need it that bad, they should pay the price for it. In a way I think the government does it to make more money, but they also raise the prices hoping that Americans will stop the habit of smoking, so In a way they are looking out for the ones who smoke. That statement is actually a proven fact, a study showed that raising prices will decrease the use of tobacco. The campaign for tobacco free kids estimates that the 61 cent increase in tax would result in a 9.1 percent decrease smoking in the youth community. On the other hand the government is trying to raise the taxes in order to provide better healthcare to American kinds. This argument sort of contradicts itself, because they are raising the taxes to raise money for healthcare and so that young Americans can quit smoking, but if a big sum of people stop smoking because of the price, the government would not raise enough for the child healthcare program.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/16/AR2007101601817.html

Children's Future

The House and the Senate had approved a $35 billion expansion of the State children’s health insurance program last week, until president Bush decided he wanted to veto it this week. The senate hopes to change the president’s decision but they are uncertain that this will happen. The president decided to veto this insurance program, because he believes that the program would benefit wealthy families and the poor will be left behind. In my opinion I don’t believe president bush should do this, because he goes out and spends a bunch of money on unnecessary things such as war, and unnecessary trainings, this health insurance program would benefit a lot of people that make “too much “ for Medicaid, but not enough to buy health insurance. Within the next few months, the Senate hopes to pass this program in order to help millions of kids,that are in desperate need of help. In a way I agree with president bush, because I bet that a bunch of people that do not need this insurance program will benefit from it and will leave some of the people who needed it behind. On the other hand the people that really need it will get a big break for them and their families. This program would be extended for about 5 years and will be supported by the tobacco tax, which would raise every cigarette pack about 61 cents. After 5 years the senate plans to increase the spending amount about $5 billion every 5 years.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/30/AR2007093001208.html