Taxing the Poor, Some More
Why is it that politicians who are the most vociferous in railing against the rich are the ones most likely to tax the poor at the end of the day? For what it’s worth, it’s backfiring. This is from a Wall Street Journal editorial.
- Maryland imposed a $2 a pack cigarette tax to pay for health reform and sales have plunged by 25%.
- In New York City cigarettes can sell for more than $9 a pack, but there is a 75% gap between sales and consumption (because people buy elsewhere).
- Expect Democrats in Congress to make one more attempt this fall to pay for SCHIP expansion with a 61 cent per pack tobacco tax.
For more on this issue see my previous post here.
When you stop to think about it, most health care reform legislation, including the proposed SCHIP expansion bills in Congress, are funded by taxes on tobacco or by lotteries or by some other tax on poor people.
[…] on attempts to tax the poor to fund the State Children's Health Insurance Plan (SCHIP) program here and here. A Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) reenactment of the tobacco settlement is here. […]