SCHIP Update

For those of you cigar smokers who have not been following the SCHIP bill State (or more accurately, Socialist) Health Insurance Program, our president called together a rather hastily gathered group and quickly signed the final bill passed by Congress. 

Having found enough traitors to sign on to this massive step on the path to socialism and national health care, and desperately needing a victory in a week that his seen his Cabinet nominations going up in flames, our fearless leader signed legislation that has rather dramatically increased the taxation rate on hand rolled, premium cigars. In fact, he has increased that rate of taxation from approximately $.04 per cigar to approximately $.42 per cigar. Calling this "only the first step", in meeting his campaign promise of getting health coverage for every American (you know, the nationalized health care that we have been rejecting since the first Clinton Administration), the president lauded the efforts of Congress in quickly acting in the interests of the children of America. 

Even with this first step however, the numbers appear to tell us that President Obama will need another 23 million smokers over the next four years to reach the revenue levels required for a balanced budget on this program (at a time when there is money in the stimulus package to reduce the number of smokers in this country). What will happen if this additional tax or the efforts put forward by the stimulus package causes more people to stop smoking no one has yet explained, but perhaps the president will address this in his next press conference on health in the US.