July 2nd, 2007 at 10:08 am
Senator Ted Kennedy has a stellar track record for increasing government power and the cost of everything his legislation touches: HMOs, No Child Left Behind, prescription drugs, college education, immigration, you name it. When a Republican sponsors legislation with him, the Republican never seems to moderate the legislation; Kennedy drags that person to the left.
Kennedy’s latest target is Sen. Orrin Hatch, CNSNews.com reports:
Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) released a statement in June supporting an increase in the tobacco tax to fund the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (S-CHIP), which is due for reauthorization this year. Kennedy and Hatch were the original sponsors of the program when it was created in 1997.
Taxing people so that they’ll quit smoking is slimy: one is taking advantage of a nicotine addiction to raise revenue. If it’s bad for Phillip Morris to do it, why is it OK for the government to do it? 
I am curious how 670,000 adults are being serviced by a Children’s Health Insurance Program.
Government shouldn’t be paying for anyone’s health insurance anyway. If there is charity to be performed, it should be done by charitable organizations.
August 2nd, 2007 at 11:03 pm
[...] program was called SCHIP and is now called CHIP. Considering that we’re already paying for 670,000 adults with the program and that will only keep going up, we may as well also strike the C from the [...]
March 17th, 2008 at 3:18 pm
[...] Writer Maryland: Gamble…for the Children March 17th, 2008 at 2:47 pm First we had smoking for the children. Now, the Washington Post reports that the Maryland State Teachers Association is backing an [...]