Senate Targets Smokers for Tax-and-Spend

The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids issued a lauding statement on Friday in which it said the Senate's approval of a new federal tax of 61 cents per pack on cigarettes would be a victory in the fight against tobacco use among children and against ill-health all the way around.

The purpose of the federal cigarette tax is to finance an increase in funding to the SCHIP program (State Children's Health Insurance Program).

The Campaign says that in addition to funding increased federal health insurance coverage for the children of needy families (under the new legislation, some of these "needy" families can have household incomes of over $82,000 a year), the new federal tax will discourage children from smoking and encourage smokers to quit the habit by making smoking too expensive. The organization claims that for every 10% hike in the cost of cigarettes, seven percent of would-be smoker youths are discouraged from taking up the habit and four percent of smokers kick the habit.

The Campaign says that there is thus a victory for children's health, a victory for Congress in finding the financing it needs to increase the reach of SCHIP, and a victory for taxpayers because according to surveys 67% of Americans favor increasing the tobacco tax to finance increases in health insurance coverage.

Critics of the new tax say that it is hypocritical to tax what is called a bad habit and a health problem in order to pay for a program that is supposed to encourage health; that if smoking is that bad and that out of control it should be made illegal.

According to a study conducted by the Heritage Foundation, 22 million American adults will need to smoke regularly (two packs a day or more) through 2017 to keep SCHIP funded at the new level, before any future raises in funding are implemented, which critics say is very likely. So, they conclude, the federal government is taxing an addictive adult habit to keep children-that is, anyone under the age of 25-receiving a federal benefit. It cannot "discourage" the habit too much or it will come up against a funding gap.