Posted on 04/14/2013 7:11:20 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
President Obama’s new budget proposes paying for a $66 billion universal pre-kindergarten program by increasing the federal cigarette tax to $1.95 a pack. In theory, that raises about $78 billion over the next decade. Enough to fund the program—but not forever. The problem, as with all government programs funded under the kill-two-birds theory used to justify relying on smoking taxes as a revenue mechanism, is that cigarette taxes tend to discourage people from smoking. And with fewer people smoking, there’s less revenue to be raised from cigarette taxes.
As The Washington Post’s Brad Plumer points out you can see the expected decline within the president’s budget projections: Revenue peaks at $9.8 billion in 2015. But by 2023, the end of the 10-year budget window, it’s already down to $6 billion—and presumably would continue dropping from there, making it plainly unsustainable.
And that’s assuming that these revenue projections are accurate. States that have raised smoking taxes have found that they often aren’t. Between 2003 and 2007, states raised cigarette taxes 57 times. Yet according to the National Taxpayers Union, just 16 of those hikes brought in the expected revenue.
I don’t expect Obama’s pre-k proposal to go very far, but even still, there’s something perverse about even proposing to fund a program based on revenues raised by the perpetuation of an activity one claims to want to stamp out. Either you end up with a revenue source that isn’t sustainable, or you end up with a program that relies on the continuation of an activity you claim to despise in order to function.
Granted, that hasn't dissuaded legislators from this sort of thing before. Arizona got into budget trouble recently for relying on tobacco industry revenues to fund its Medicaid program.
Bath-House...keep your stinkin’ Marxist hands off the children.
They’re ours-—NOT the federal gubmint’s.
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It is not kindergarten. It is pre-kindergarten. Try that. Maybe that will show up along with ObamaCare, death panels and indoctrination camps. :-)
I personally know more people who have died from alcohol than have died from smoking.
We all know this but just as a reminder:
Watch what he DOES, not what he SAYS.
With nobama as Campaigner-in-Chief, he says all sorts of batsh!t crazy things, like this as an example.
But it is what he is and isn’t doing as President that counts.
Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!
He thinks smokers like him should be willing to pay a little more.
Smokers are already paying for their “healthcare” now we’ve got to pay for their babysitters too?! KMA Barry!!!
Good observation Repeal The 17th. It's great to see patriots referencing the Constitution.
8:}
What is the difference in cost of a pack of cigarettes vs tobacco purchased to roll one’s own?
NEVER, NEVER, NEVER!
This would be a disaster. All they want is to start brainwashing our kids at an even earlier age.
I like the way that some countries actually direct a tax on a particular thing to the support of having that particular thing. Where I live, every single thing you do in your life is charged a “school tax” - Even the sewers, based on water usage. So, every time you take a dump and flush the toilet, you pay a school tax. I find this very symbolic.
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- The Opansy family gets one billion dollars ($1,000,000,000) a year in untaxed “undocumented income”.
- You will pay twenty-one (21) new hidden taxes under Opansycare in “undocumented taxes”.
- You may need a source of “undocumented income” too.
- You may need an “undocumented Social Security number” under the name of Barrison J. Bullshitter.
- You may need an “undocumented offshore bank account” in Russia like Opansy’s Iranian born “undocumented White House advisor” Valerie Jarrett has.
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“Head Start is a failure. It is nothing more than a baby sitting service paid for by taxpayers for Illegal children.”
That may be the case in some areas, but there are exceptions as well. The one that serves the east end of Newport News is a tightly run ship with conscientious teachers and polite, well-mannered kids. Whatever they’re doing in those classrooms, they’re doing it right. Not saying I’m a proponent of the program as a whole if it’s failing in other areas, but I was happy to see these kids have some form of structure in their lives.
RE: I checked my copy of The Constitution...
I can’t find any reference to kindergarten in there anywhere..
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To the liberal, the “Promote the General Welfare” clause is license for government to do anything as long as their intentions are good.
Since the kinder gardeners don’t go to school the whole day, the teaching could be pro bono.
The teachers could donate their services to such a worthy effort. The donation is a contribution to their own future and professional well being.
"That's what I'm saying."
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