Winx but it does, I make less than $250K/yr and this increase on smokes does affect me.

I have, always tracked my "effective tax rate" when filing with the IRS...It is ,ALWAYS, higher when we have a democrat in the White House....now I have only been working for 30 years...so there is not a great deal of history...but for me...this is fact!!!

It's not specifically targeted for people making under $250,000. That's my point. It's for all incomes that smoke.

Don't need one. How else do you think the government is going to keep operating after not one but three failed stimulus (translated porkulus) bills? They don't print their own money any more.

You say that like it matters.

Oh but Winx, all it is, is a play on words - least that's how I'm taking it.

No worries smokers. Whenever the government decides to ban/tax the hell out of something, the criminal elements will find a way to profit from it. I wonder how well Obama is going to be praised for this tax hike when it results in more funds being used for terrorism and human smuggling operations overseas....

Are y'all still blaming this on Obama?

nobody is taking into account another universal tax hike. This hike is based on the amount of savings you have, and the amount you earn in your income regardless of income.

The tax.... Inflation!

The value of our dollar is decreasing about 3% daily now. This is why gas prices are starting to climb again. Anything we buy internationally to include food will now become more expensive. Not because of anyone jacking up the price, but because the $1,000 in your savings acount will only be worth $970 tomorrow, and $940 the next day, and so on.

Funny how noone seems to understand inflation and how damaging it is.

Read this please.
It was a bipartisan bill!


updated 10:22 a.m. ET, Wed., Oct. 3, 2007
WASHINGTON - President Bush, in a sharp confrontation with Congress, on Wednesday vetoed a bipartisan bill that would have dramatically expanded children's health insurance.

It was only the fourth veto of Bush's presidency, and one that some Republicans feared could carry steep risks for their party in next year's elections. The Senate approved the bill with enough votes to override the veto, but the margin in the House fell short of the required number.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., decried Bush's action as a "heartless veto."

"Never has it been clearer how detached President Bush is from the priorities of the American people," Reid said in a statement. "By vetoing a bipartisan bill to renew the successful Children's Health Insurance Program, President Bush is denying health care to millions of low-income kids in America. "

The White House sought little attention, with Bush casting his veto behind closed doors without any fanfare or news coverage. He was discussing it later Wednesday during a budget speech in Lancaster, Pa.

Socialized medicine?
The State Children's Health Insurance Program is a joint state-federal effort that subsidizes health coverage for 6.6 million people, mostly children, from families that earn too much to qualify for Medicaid but not enough to afford their own private coverage.

The Democrats who control Congress, with significant support from Republicans, passed the legislation to add $35 billion over five years to allow an additional 4 million children into the program. It would be funded by raising the federal cigarette tax by 61 cents to $1 per pack.

The president had promised to veto it, saying the Democratic bill was too costly, took the program too far from its original intent of helping the poor, and would entice people now covered in the private sector to switch to government coverage. He wants only a $5 billion increase in funding.

Bush argued that the congressional plan would be a move toward socialized medicine by expanding the program to higher-income families.

Democrats deny that, saying their goal is to cover more of the millions of uninsured children and noting that the bill provides financial incentives for states to cover their lowest-income children first. Of the over 43 million people nationwide who lack health insurance, over 6 million are under 18 years old. That's over 9 percent of all children.

Veto override considerations
Eighteen Republicans joined Democrats in the Senate, enough to override Bush's veto. But this was not the case in the House, where despite sizable Republican support, supporters of the bill are about two dozen votes short of a successful override.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said Democrats were imploring 15 House Republicans to switch positions but had received no agreements so far.

House Minority Whip Roy Blunt, R-Mo., said he was "absolutely confident" that the House would be able to sustain Bush's expected veto.

Senate Minority Whip Trent Lott, R-Miss., said Congress should be able to reach a compromise with Bush once he vetoes the bill. "We should not allow it to be expanded to higher and higher income levels, and to adults. This is about poor children," he said. "But we can work it out."

It took Bush six years to veto his first bill, when he blocked expanded federal research using embryonic stem cells last summer. In May, he vetoed a spending bill that would have required troop withdrawals from Iraq. In June, he vetoed another bill to ease restraints on federally funded stem cell research.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21111931/

Considering it's highly unlikely Bush forged Obama's signature on this piece of legislation, I would say the buck stops with Obama.

(From the article) "Now in office, Obama, who stopped smoking but has admitted he slips now and then, signed a law raising the tobacco tax nearly 62 cents on a pack of cigarettes, to $1.01. Other tobacco products saw similarly steep increases."

Don't care. Obama should have vetoed it, just like Bush did.

Bipartisan bill? So?

Obama said he will not raise. He signed it. He could have not.

"One cannot complain that other men are making a whore of his wife."

Yep. One does not need to buy with tax.

Los Angeles, for instance, is full of cigarettes that are about twice cheaper. Black market. Same brands and types.

The people who deliver these through borders, just received a major subsidy from president Obama.

Free market, always work in an interest of a consumer. Even if government turns it onto a black market, as happened with guns, explosives, cigarettes, drugs and prostitution.

With enemies like Obama, the traffickers do not need any friends.

Yes, but the people are too dumb to recognize that as taxation. Like Keynes said, "Not one man in a million...is able to recognize this".

2009-2010 Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2009

Introduced Jan 13, 2009
Referred to Committee View Committee Assignments
Reported by Committee Jan 16, 2009
Amendments (60 proposed) View Amendments
Passed House Jan 14, 2009
Passed Senate Jan 29, 2009
Signed by President Feb 4, 2009

Did that danged Bush sneek into the Oval Office and sign that while noone was looking?

wasn't it originally created in 1997, CHIP is Title XXI of the Social Security Act?