The Democrats in Congress are anxious for universal health care, but to pay for this expensive and intrusive endeavor they have decided to increase taxes on tobacco, always a popular target. In order to raise $35 billion to $50 billion dollars to expand the state children's health insurance program (SCHIP), they will hike taxes on cigarettes from 39 cents per pack to $1 per, an increase of 256%. But along with cigarettes, their tax increase will also target cigars and although cigars are only a fraction of domestic tobacco sales, their tax increase on the cigar industry will go from a 4.8 cent per cigar cap to a $10 per cigar cap...that is a tax increase of 20,000 percent to fund government run health care.
