SCHIP is an acronym for the federal State Children's Health Insurance Program and congressional Democrats are likely to vote this month to expand the program by $35 billion. To finance the increased spending, the Democrats would enact the largest tax increase on cigarettes and tobacco products in the history of the United States. While SCHIP is an important program to provide health insurance to children in low income families, attempting to fund the $35 billion expansion solely through a federal tobacco tax increase should sound alarm bells in the halls of Congress. The $35 billion SCHIP expansion relies on higher tax rates for all tobacco products including raising the cigarette tax by 61¢ a pack or 156.4%, increasing the tax on cigars up to $3.00 per cigar or 6,000%, and hiking the tax on pipe tobacco and smokeless tobacco by 156.4% as well. More... Nutty News - Cigarettes America Front Page News
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