Free Republic

New Jersey's subsidized health insurance program for the working poor came under attack in the U.S. Senate this week for being too generous, and state officials rallied to its defense.  Governor Corzine traveled to Washington, D.C., on Wednesday to lobby his former colleagues to extend and expand the 10-year-old program, which expires at the end of September. He also urged defeat of Republican amendments that would reduce the federal money New Jersey would get. Cost of living variations New Jersey battled attempts to mandate a single income cutoff for federal health insurance subsidies by arguing that the same amount...

The following letter (unedited) is endorsed to FreeRepublic on behalf of the cigar workers displaced on the occasion of the closing of the next to the last Cigar Factory in Tampa, Florida. Detroit is losing the Auto Industry, as South Carolina is losing textiles, across the nation, the job loss due to over-regulation and taxes accelerates. To Our Elected Officials: Despite repeated assertions on what the true affects of SCHIP and further increases of taxes on tabacco would be, your short-sightedness has eliminated not only a 100+ year old Tampa business but in the process have cost hundreds of Amercians...

(Washington, DC 5/14/09) Reflecting upon the latest increase in tobacco taxes, it has been determined by the current administration that the huge bump in these taxes has in fact hurt the very people the SCHIP law was intended to benefit. They promise a fix is coming that will rectify this situation. "We understand now, fully, the impact this tax is having on the poor. E-mail after e-mail is received by the White House complaining that the choice is now food or cigarettes. As the President is a smoker, we understand people shouldn't have to make such a stark choice." "A...

Many non-smokers have said this new tobacco tax doesn't affect them. Think again! When the Children's Health Insurance Reauthorization Act of 2009 goes into effect on April 1, 2009, there will be unintended consequences for everyone in the United States - whether or not they smoke. There are also expected consequences, such as cigarette smuggling across our border. According to the Arizona Department of Revenue, increased taxes on tobacco will increase black market sales as well as tobacco smuggling from Mexico. Within a year of the enactment of this tobacco tax, our federal government will begin a study to find...

“Under my plan, no family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase. Not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your taxes.” That pledge went up in smoke Wednesday, April 1, 2009, when largest increase in tobacco taxes, took effect, a tax that disproportionately affects the poor.”

About a week ago, a mailer from a cigar company I have dealt with arrived at my home. It contained this text: Dear Friends, As many of you know and some may not, one of President Obama's first actions was to sign into legislation what is known as the SCHIP bill. This legislation provides for health insurance for children. This legislation was vetoed by President Bush twice as an unfair tax on the American people. This program is almost entirely funded by the tobacco industry, and not just cigarettes. Some of the new taxes on tobacco increase by 2400%. That's...

Obama's seemingly endless stream of proposals that advance incredibly arrogant, illogical and foolish ideas More Worthy of Health Care: Disabled War Vets or Illegal Aliens? John Lillpop Bio Email Article Email Us Print friendly By John Lillpop Tuesday, March 17, 2009 President Obama continues to provide a “shock and awe” assault on everyday common sense with his seemingly endless stream of proposals that advance incredibly arrogant, illogical and foolish ideas. The latest shock concerns the proposal to force private insurance companies to pay for treating disabled veterans. As reported, in part, at Yahoonews: “The leader of the nation’s largest veterans...

TAMPA, Fla., March 16 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Democrats are moving quickly to socialize American health care with the SCHIP expansion. Michael Tanner of the CATO Institute whined, "Shouldn't we at least talk about it?" The cost to the federal taxpayers is enormous and President Obama has promised to reduce funding in Medicare to help pay for SCHIP's expansion. Representative Steven King (R-IA) labels SCHIP expansion, "A Cornerstone for Socialized Medicine." The biggest problem with SCHIP is the danger to children who sign up for it. Millions of children have been terminated off of their SCHIP insurance on their 19th birthday regardless...

Tobacco connoisseurs can't catch a break. A new federal tax recently approved by President Obama has increased cigarette carton prices by more than $10 - about 75 cents a pack. The tax was passed in January as part of a multibillion dollar package to provide health care for children and certain legal immigrants. Local tobacco users and dealers admit the cause is admirable, but said the tax is unjust. “There is about zero common sense or logic in this whole tax,” said David Roth, owner of Tobacco Alley in Somerset. “It is a revenue stream that has been drying up...

The White House claims that President Obama's administration will be "the most open and transparent in history," and announced on Friday it will convene a conference on March 12 to ensure "transparency" in the way money from last month's massive spending bill is distributed. This would be a change from the secretive way that bill rocketed into law. As a candidate for office, Mr. Obama promised he would "not sign any non-emergency bill without giving the American public an opportunity to review and comment on the White House website for five days." That didn't happen. The American Recovery and Reinvestment...

Obama Signs SCHIP Law with Major Tobacco Tax Increase February 5, 2009 News Summary (excerpt:) Fulfilling a campaign promise, President Barack Obama signed the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) bill into law this week; the measure will expand healthcare coverage for children using funds from a 62-cent-per-pack increase in the federal cigarette tax. The Detroit Free Press reported Feb. 4 that Obama approved the $74-billion SCHIP reauthorization legislation passed by the House of Representatives earlier in the day on a 290-135 vote. The Senate had previously approved the measure, which was vetoed twice last year by then-President George Bush. The measure...

McConnell on the $410 Billion Omnibus Spending Bill from the Office of Senator Mitch McConnell Monday, March 2, 2009‘We need to step back, look at the bigger picture, and think about what we’re doing. And that means slowing down before we spend another $410 billion’ WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell made the following statement on the Senate floor Monday regarding the Omnibus Appropriations bill: “The Omnibus Appropriations bill that just arrived from the House is an important piece of legislation, but it’s not an emergency. Congress approves this spending every year. There is no need to...

President Obama and most of the press cheered the passage of the State Children's Health Insurance Program, but can SCHIP (pronounced "ship") stay afloat long-term? President Barack Obama said when he signed into law a new expanded version of the State Children's Health Insurance Program on February 4: "No child should be receiving his care in the emergency room in the middle of the night." Obviously, he doesn't realize that children with SCHIP coverage very often get their medical care in emergency rooms — at all times of the day, even more frequently than uninsured people do. The Heritage Foundation...

Using borrowed money for a band-aid bailout of the economy should seem backwards to most people. However, it likely is a planned strategy to promote radical change. Those naively believing that President Obama is simply rewarding his far-left base, and will then move to the political center, must wise up. The assumption that Obama will need the nation to prosper in order to protect the 2010 mid-term election incorrectly assumes that he esteems free market capitalism. He does not. Rather than win through superior ideas and policies, the Democrat plan for success in the mid-term elections is to win by...

_House Passes Senate SCHIP Bill;President Signs Bill_ On Wednesday, Feb. 4, the U.S. House passed by a margin of 290 to 135 the U.S. Senate version of the bill to expand the State Children's Health Insurance Program, (S.C.H.I.P.)... President has signed the legislation into law. Below are the final tax rates on cigarettes and tobacco products that will go into effect on April 1, 2009 :SCHIP Cigarette and Tobacco Tax RatesProduct Current Rates Through March 31, 2009 and Cigarette and Tobacco Tax Rate April, 1 2009 * Pack Cigarettes:39¢ per pack$1.0066 per pack * Large Cigars:20.719% of manufacturer's price;...

Posted by Michael F. Cannon @ Cato@LibertyDestination Casa Blanca has posted their hour-long program — featuring yours truly — on the State Children’s Health Insurance Program expansion that President Obama just signed into law (the utter lack of evidence of effectiveness notwithstanding). During the program, I shatter the myths that SCHIP is for low-income children, that it’s a cost-effective way of improving children’s health, etc. I guess we know what you’ll be doing for the next hour.

The following two excerpts are two things that have changed in the SCHIP legislation that Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi are so proud of getting passed: The new law contains other provisions intended to eliminate enrollment barriers that are likely to affect some New Mexicans. (article is from a NM journal) Under existing law, legal immigrants must show they have lived in the United States at least five years to qualify for SCHIP. The new law eliminates the so-called five-year bar, and allows children and pregnant women to enroll immediately in Medicaid or SCHIP, Gail Evans, legal director at the...

Being a Democrat can mean several things - possessing the ability to emote as a means of creating policy, having the facility to substitute feelings for wisdom, or the innate instinct to never think what happens next. It's a cushy intellectual life, to be sure.Take the President's signing of the so-called S-CHIP bill into law last week - a measure which expands (fancy that) the State Children's Health Insurance Program by roughly $35 billion over the next five years.President Obama may not have asked anyone to read his lips, but you'll recall he did promise no new taxes of...

By signing SCHIP bill, Obama breaks campaign promise not to raise taxes on those making under $250,000 per year... Obama’s signature puts into effect a 156 percent increase in the federal excise tax on tobacco, a hike of 61 cents per pack... Shouldering the burden of this tax increase are the middle- and low-income Americans Obama said he would not raise taxes on...

The House Ways and Means Committee introduced the newest incarnation of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) today. The International Premium Cigar & Pipe Retailers Association (IPCPR) reported in an email that the legislation would impose a revised federal excise tax on large cigars—52.4 percent, with a maximum tax cap of 40 cents per cigar. It was feared throughout the cigar industry that the cap would be much higher. The original version called for a $10 cap, and earlier versions had a cap of $3 per cigar. The tax is currently capped at five cents. The bill, which seeks...

It took only 16 days for President Obama to break his campaign promise not to raise taxes on the poor. When President Obama signed the SCHIP bill, increasing the excise tax on Tobacco products by 156%, he raise taxes on 55% of smokers who are the “working poor” and the 25% of smokers who live below the poverty line. This bill is to provide health care to many of these smokers’ children. If he cared about the health of these children, the purpose of the cigarette tax would be to deter smoking because many children from homes of smokers require...

Obama Signs SCHIP Legislation, Says Bill Is 'First Step' Toward Universal Health CoverageMain Category: Medicare / Medicaid / SCHIP Article Date: 06 Feb 2009 - 5:00 PST President Obama on Wednesday signed into law a bill (HR 2) that will reauthorize and expand SCHIP to an additional four million children, the AP/San Francisco Chronicle reports. Obama said that expanding the program is "the first step" to achieving universal health coverage in the U.S. (Freking/Elliot, AP/San Francisco Chronicle, 2/5). The House cleared the final version of the measure by a vote of 290-135 earlier in the day. Forty Republicans voted in...

President Barack Obama has called on HHS to immediately withdraw a directive that set tighter enrollment requirements for higher-income children under the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, a move that is seen by some as opening the door for state expansion of the program. The directive, first issued on Aug. 17, 2007, required states to first enroll 95% of children in families earning less than 200% of the federal poverty level—$42,400 for a family of four—before they could enroll children in families earning more than 250% of the federal poverty level. “These requirements have limited coverage under several state plans...

President Barack Obama's Capitol Hill colleagues are urging him to act swiftly on health care reform.Echoing a number of prominent legislators, senior congressmen Jim Cooper, D-Tenn., and Michael Castle, R-Del., recently wrote that the president must quickly enact the health care measures he'd promised on the campaign trail, noting that "every day we wait we lose another opportunity." There should be a sense of urgency surrounding health care reform. But hustling through bad policies is worse than doing nothing — and the Obama health care platform is chock-full of bad policies. Take the president's plan to legally require that children...

SCHIP Will Increase RYO Tax Over 2,200%! RYOrevolution.com was founded for the sole purpose of educating smokers about the higher quality Roll Your Own tobacco alternatives to overtaxed and overpriced pre-made cigarettes. Federal and State Tobacco Tax information was published for informational purposes only, political editorials were relegated to small sub-sections of the RYO Revolution Discussion Forums. Recent action by Congress however has forced me to speak out, I can no longer stand by silently and watch this affront against smokers, particularly those who enjoy Roll Your Own Tobacco or have been forced to switch to RYO due to limited...

President Barack Obama kept one campaign pledge Wednesday afternoon and at the same time violated another when he signed into law the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, which extends health care coverage to 11 million low-income children. The White House views the SCHIP legislation as a down payment on Obama’s pledge to provide universal health care by the end of his first term. The bill ran into some partisan resistance because it allows states for the first time to use federal money to cover children and pregnant women who are legal immigrants. But Obama’s 5 p.m. signing came barely three...

One would never guess that America is experiencing one of the worst recessions in history. Considering the legislation being passed on the federal level and proposals being made on the state level, one would think that Americans are enjoying tremendous excesses and the government simply wants to partake. Yesterday, Obama signed into law the SCHIP modifications that would expand coverage to more children. The pitfalls of this legislation are too numerous to list, the burden on the taxpayer is growing. Under the new applicants will no longer have to provide social security numbers when filing for aid, thereby allowing illegals...

As expected, the House today gave final approval to the S-CHIP government health care expansion funded with a massive tax hike on smokers. President Obama is set to sign the bill amid great “progressive” fanfare. The kiddie human shield strategy strikes again. The roll call vote is up here. The vote was 290-135. I’ve broken down the list of Republicans who supported this universal health care Trojan Horse. Take note: Austria Bono Mack Buchanan Cao Capito Castle Dent Diaz-Balart, L. Diaz-Balart, M. Ehlers Emerson Frelinghuysen Gerlach King (NY) Kirk Lance LaTourette Lee (NY) LoBiondo McCotter McHugh Miller (MI) Moran (KS)...

The MSM will tell you that Obama signed the SCHIP bill, which provides free (read Socialist) health care to children. What they bury in the love-fest of good liberal intentions is the fact that taxes were raised on tobacco products, which are used disproportionately by middle and working class folks. More . . .

Children's health depends on you. Please help, a life you safe could be your neighbors child. If you only smoke two packs a day(60 packs a month=$60.61) you could pay for a child's health insurance each month. Wednesday, February 4, 2009 | President Barack Hussein Obama will raise taxes this afternoon with his signature on the SCHIP bill scheduled to pass the House of Representatives today. (federal tax to $1.01 per pack)

Press Releases Contact: Brendan Daly/Nadeam Elshami 202-226-7616 For Immediate Release 02/04/2009 Pelosi: ‘Today is a Very Special Day for Us in the House; We Are Going to Help 11 Million Children’ Washington, D.C. – Speaker Nancy Pelosi and parents and children affected by the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) held a photo opportunity this morning before the final House vote on the bill, which President Obama will sign into law this afternoon. Below are the Speaker’s remarks and answer to a reporter’s question: “This is a very special day for us in the House of Representatives and in the...

The House overwhelmingly approved a bill extending health coverage to 4 million uninsured children, giving President Barack Obama a much-needed win on health care and taking a first step toward his promise of universal coverage. The Democratic-controlled House passed the bill 290-135 on Wednesday, with 40 Republicans backing it. Obama plans to sign it into law later in the day. The bill calls for spending an additional $32.8 billion on the State Children's Health Insurance Program. Lawmakers generated that revenue through a much higher federal tobacco tax. "Unemployment keeps rising and people are going from worried to scared," Rep. Rosa...

Today, President Obama is set to sign the SCHIP bill (State Children’s Health Insurance Program). Mind you, this is a program that is to be heavily funded by increasing the sales tax on things like cigarettes. In this stimulus bill, you will find the following item. Smoking Cessation.-Cigarette smoking is the leading preventable cause of death in the United States, causing 1 in 5 deaths annually in the United States. Currently, nearly 23 percent of high school students smoke and every day approximately 1,300 people under the age of 18 become daily smokers. Annually, cigarette smoking costs $96,000,000,000 in direct...

Barely two weeks in office, President Barack Hussein Obama will raise taxes this afternoon with his signature on the SCHIP bill scheduled to pass the House of Representatives today.The reauthorization of the State Children's Health Insurance Program includes massive tax increases on cigarettes, cigars and other tobacco products. Similar bills were vetoed twice by President George W. Bush in part because of the tax increases. Democrats in the House and Senate have voted overwhelmingly for the tax increases each time the bill was proposed and were joined by a handful of Republicans.The bill Obama will sign today raises the federal...

Senate Passes SCHIP Bill with Federal Tobacco Tax IncreaseJanuary 30, 2009 The U.S. Senate voted 66-32 this week to approve a major expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), funded with a 61-cent-per-pack increase in the federal tobacco tax, Reuters reported Jan. 30. The $32.8-billion SCHIP bill would expand eligibility for the health-insurance program to an additional 11 million children; about 7.4 million kids are covered by SCHIP now. The measure was passed twice last year, but vetoed both times by President George Bush. A similar measure has already passed the House of Representatives, and House Speaker Nancy...

With the nation preoccupied by the financial crisis, Democrats have been quietly working to nationalize health care. Tom Daschle is still waiting to be confirmed as secretary of health and human services, not that he's in any rush. Democrats are already enacting his and Barack Obama's agenda of government-run health care -- entirely on the QT. This was the real accomplishment of this week's House vote for the $819 billion "stimulus," and is the overriding theme of Congress's first month. With the nation occupied with the financial crisis, and with that crisis providing cover, Democrats have been passing provision after...

Senate roll vote: Children's health insurance bill The 66-32 roll call by which the Senate on Thursday passed a bill to add 4 million lower-income children to government insurance programs. On this vote, a "yes" vote was a vote in favor of the bill and a "no" vote was a vote against it. Voting "yes" were 55 Democrats, 9 Republicans and 2 independents. Voting "no" were 0 Democrats and 32 Republicans. Republicans Yes Alexander, Tenn.; Collins, Maine; Corker, Tenn.; Hutchison, Texas; Lugar, Ind.; Martinez, Fla.; Murkowski, Alaska; Snowe, Maine; Specter, Pa. Republicans No Barrasso, Wyo.; Bennett, Utah; Bond, Mo.; Brownback,...

Washington, DC -- During the Bush administration, President Bush displayed his concern for both mother and unborn child by putting an administrative rule in place allowing states to cover unborn children in the SCHIP program. On Thursday, the Senate rejected an amendment to make that administrative rule national law. Sen. Orrin Hatch sponsored the amendment to codify the Unborn Child Rule and the Senate rejected his motion on a 59 to 39 vote.

WASHINGTON: A top Republican congressional aide says the $800 billion-plus economic stimulus measure could steer government checks to illegal immigrants. Republican officials are concerned that the Democratic-written legislation makes people who came to the United States illegally eligible for tax credits of $500 per worker and $1,000 per couple. A House-passed version of the bill and one making its way through the Senate both disqualify nonresident aliens from receiving the credits. But neither requires a worker to have a Social Security number to get the credits. An economic aid measure enacted in February 2008 that sent rebates to most wage...

Senate Republicans fell short Wednesday in their effort to curtail the expansion of a government health insurance program for lower-income children. The Senate rejected the Republican proposal by a resounding 65-32 vote. Democratic lawmakers say the GOP's legislation didn't go far enough, covering only about 2 million uninsured children, or roughly half the number that Democrats' seek to cover. The Senate is considering this week the renewal of the State Children's Health Insurance Program. The program is a state-federal partnership that provides government-sponsored health insurance to children of the working poor. Democrats want to more than double spending on SCHIP....

Urges Colleagues to Put Partisanship Aside and Focus on Providing Nearly 11 Million of the Neediest Children with the Health Care They Deserve WASHINGTON, D.C. -- As the U.S. Senate prepares to debate the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) Reauthorization Act of 2009, Senator Jay Rockefeller, Chairman of the Finance Subcommittee on Health Care, today urged his colleagues to quickly pass this critical legislation to provide health insurance to nearly 11 million of the nation’s poorest children, including 4.1 million children who would be newly insured. In preparation for the debate, Senator Rockefeller released a section-by-section comparison of the three...

A prominent House Democrat said he doesn't expect a comprehensive healthcare reform bill to pass Congress in 2009, saying an incremental approach to covering the uninsured would be better "than to go out and just bite something you can't chew." House Majority Whip James Clyburn's (D-S.C.) timeline on tackling healthcare is at odds with the timetable proposed by Senate Democrats and could represent a major shift in the House Democrats' strategy of dealing with the uninsured.During an interview on C-SPAN's "Newsmakers" program that aired on Sunday, Clyburn said he doesn't anticipate that comprehensive healthcare legislation will be approved in 2009....

The Council of Independent Tobacco Manufacturers of Americareleased a news flash today that contains an interesting provision tucked into the S-CHIP legislation (children's health insurance): An increase the federal excise tax on roll-your-own (RYO) tobacco from $1 per pound of tobacco, to over $24 per pound: a staggering 2,100% increase.

Days before becoming responsible, in the eyes of a public fixated on the presidency, for almost everything, Barack Obama vowed to convene a "fiscal responsibility summit." It will consider the economy's long-term problems, one of which is the growing cost of entitlements in an aging nation that is caught in the tightening grip of an iron law of welfare states: Graying means paying. Presumably the president's summit will help chart a path toward what has been called a "grand bargain." This Big Bang will aim to create a new universe of domestic policy by, among other things, making the entitlement...

Obama Extends Healthcare to Illegal Aliens January 19, 2009 CFIF.org As Taxpayers Struggle, Congress and Obama Extend Healthcare to Illegal Immigrants, and Raise Taxes on Lower-Income Americans While an increasing number of Americans face layoffs, benefit cuts and difficulty paying their bills, the last thing that President-Elect Obama and Congress should be doing is devising ways to make taxpayers' lives even tougher by forcing them to subsidize healthcare for illegal immigrants. But believe it or not, that is precisely what they are poised to do. In so doing, they will also raise taxes on Americans earning well under $250,000, the...

Now that Obama is the president, fasten your seat belts. During his first year in office, and particularly during his first hundred days, we are about to witness the most prodigious output of legislation since 1981-2 (under Reagan), 1964-5 (under Johnson), and 1933-36 (under Roosevelt). The combination of top heavy Democratic majorities in Congress and a mood of public fear bordering on panic over the financial crisis and the looming depression will speed his legislation through a compliant Senate and House.We will enter his Administration as the United States, buoyed by an aggressive free market economy. We will exit his...

The House of Representatives has passed an expanded version of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), and made it easier for illegal aliens to access the program's benefits. HR 2, the new version of SCHIP, weakens verification requirements. Those who enroll will be required to show only an easily forged Social Security card -- not secure documents proving U.S. citizenship. The legislation also extends benefits to non-citizen children of legal immigrants. The SCHIP bill is designed to provide health coverage to low-income children, a laudable

The House of Representatives voted to expand the children's health insurance program known as S-Chip. This program will expand coverage to more than half a million illegal aliens at YOUR expense.

While an increasing number of Americans face layoffs, benefit cuts and difficulty paying their bills, the last thing Obama and Congress should be doing is raising taxes to subsidize healthcare for illegal aliens. But this is precisesly what they are poised to do. This week, the House voted to expand the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). In theory, SCHIP aims to assist children whose families' incomes are too high to qualify for Medicaid. In practice, however, SCHIP covers hundreds of thousands of adults, while excluding many children. And in 2007, the Pelosi-Reid Congress attempted to eviscerate even that income...

Entitlements: Democrats count on a deadly and declining revenue source to rob from the poor and give to the well-off. It kills private insurance and is income redistribution turned on its head.The House of Representatives on Wednesday passed 289-139 a bill to expand the State Children's Health Insurance Program, something President Bush vetoed twice because it expands the program to those who arguably don't need it while increasing the dependence of millions on government. The bill would provide $32.3 billion over 4 1/2 years to add 4 million children to the 7 million already covered in the program. It pays...