I have no real interest in the SCHIP brouhaha and am puzzled by Bush’s to veto a bill that would expand children’s health insurance. This can’t be a very sensible move, politically-speaking. Anyway, my only interest in the matter was in the proposal that it be funded by taxes on tobacco. I was interested to see (former smoker) Matt Yglesias say this:
The bill would also raise cigarette taxes, which, again, is a good thing to do since higher cigarette taxes cause either more revenue (a good thing) or else less smoking (a good thing) or else some combination of these two good things.
Well, ain’t that a pretty thing: let’s make the poor pay for health insurance for middle-income people. Now you may say that this is fine; poor people should be discouraged from smoking too.
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