Senate panel votes big tax hike on smokers

WASHINGTON - Steady your hands as you light that cigarette and get ready for a 156 percent tax increase.
The Senate Finance Committee voted Thursday to impose a 61-cent increase in the 39-cent per pack federal cigarette tax. Four Republicans on the panel voted no; 17 senators including six Republicans voted for the tax increase.
If the full Senate and the House concur, it will result in more than a doubling of the tax on 47 million smokers.

The purpose of the tax hike is to help pay for expanding the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), which insures 6.6 million children and teenagers whose parents have low incomes, but who aren’t poor enough to be eligible for Medicaid.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19827784/
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Increasing taxes on cigarettes by 156% to help pay for expanding the State Children's Health Insurance Program might be a bit unfair. Some people might assume the tax hike is a way to try to discourage smokers from smoking, but regardless many smokers, or at least the most "dedicated" will likely continue to smoke. Cigarettes are obviously harmful to our health, but so are sweets and fast foods. Heart disease currently tops as the leading health challenge amongst Americans. What will congress do next? Increase taxes on all sweets by 200% to for the expansion of SCHIP, which indirectly discourage diabetics from heavenly donuts from Krispy Kreme and mouth-watering cheesecake from Cheesecake Factory? Where will the lines be drawn where we, the public, know when to save ourselves from our addictions without government intervention? What else will the government continue increase tax on?