Smoke - it helps the poor
Well Tennessee is now attempting to do something that I have found comical and hypocritical in other states, that is fund health care (be if for the poor or for children like in New York) with cigarette taxes. Full Story at the Knoxville News Sentinel here
Now I understand that I am not a cigarette smoker so the tax will NOT impact me. Personally I do not care if the tax per pack is .10 or 10.00. The amount of the tax is a non issue for me in this cae. The issue for me is the idea that Tennessee is about to have cigarette smokers help to offset the cost of medical care for the poor, while trying to get people to stop smoking and prevent kids from starting. That is speaking with a forked tongue to me.
I get the fact that some smokers may be poor as well so there is even a bit of one helping / funding their own way here, and I do understand that. I wonder if the poor smokers will try to get a card or something that keeps them from paying the tax where they do not have to pay for their own medical care since they are poor. That would be classic, but only time will tell in that area.
My issue is that there are nationwide (and statewide including in school) anti smoking campaigns, not to mention a entire sub industry of stop smoking aids / helps, out there. How many people are employed by the cigarette industry? Do you want all those jobs to go away or not? I only ask those questions to point out that few really want to see cigarette smoking stop, they just want to act as if they are against it enough to seem righteous on the topic. If government wanted to end smoking they would BAN cigarette, problem solved, now is a legal issue and the police could start arresting all those 4:20ers on the curb (regardless of what they were smoking).
Simply, for the government, or any group or individual, to simultaneously work to stop people from smoking, but then want to use the profits from it to fund a program that will not go away (be in indigent care or children’s health care like in New York) is hypocritical to me and shows that they do not really want smoking to end. The plan in New York, where cig taxes cover the medical expenses of the state childrens health care plan, basically means that only the smokers love kids enough to keep smoking and fund the medical care of kids state wide. Is that really the subtle message you want to send to the next generation or not?
Now that people that smoke are helping the poor, smoking should get a new lease on life - no pun intended. The smokers habit allows them to say that they are caring and compassionate because they are helping the less fortunate get care. What do you want? Do you want people to smoke more, thus helping the poor? Or, do you want people to quit, thus forcing the poor to lose health care due to lack of funding? Which is it, as you can not want both and that is what bothers me about plans like this, weather they are in Tennessee, New York, or anywhere else.
