Smoke 'Em If You Got 'Em

Just in case you missed it. Federal cigarettes taxes are going up to $6.00 a carton. From 39¢ to $1.00 per pack."For the children."Since they're going to need something like 24 million more smokers to actually cover the costs of this vastly expanded Schip Program, I'm not sure exactly what their strategy is.How do you balloon funding for something by shrinking the funding pool?Some smokers will quit. Some will cut down. Some will buy black-market smokes. Some will die. Along with the government's aggressive anti-smoking programs this pretty much guarantees that the number of taxed packs of cigarettes will continually decrease.These people aren't really good at "long-term planning" are they?As a smoker, I'm furious. But hell, what else is new?And by the way, the coverage will include some families who make $100,000 a year. I don't make that much, but I get the privilege of paying for their health care.And while signing this, Zero proudly told us all, "it's just the first step" in his plan in providing universal health care.I guess he really, honestly doesn't know that nearly 50% of Americans don't actually want it. Or maybe he does, and just doesn't give a crap.