Friday, September 28, 2007
The kooky wisdom of Roscoe Bartlet delivered straight to my email inbox
I got an email from my draft-dodging nutball of a representative Roscoe Bartlett last night. Evidently Roscoe wanted to explain to me why he voted against the State Children’s Health Insurance Programs bill. Not that I needed any explanation. Of course Roscoe would vote against a law providing better health care for children.
What cracked me up were some of the reasons he came up with. Check out reason #8:
Dramatically Increases Taxes on Working Families. The Democrats’ bill hikes tobacco taxes by 61 cents per pack, once again proving that Democrats are harming low-income families they claim to want to help. In April, 15 Democrats acknowledged this fact when they sent a letter to Budget Committee Chairman John Spratt (D-SC) encouraging him not to raise the tobacco taxes in the budget resolution because they were not only regressive but a declining source of revenue. (Section 701)
Smoking is a disgusting and a severely unhealthy habit. I think everyone that smokes should quit, especially people in low-income families. The only thing wrong with a 61 cent per pack tax is that it’s far too low.
It ought to be at least $10 a pack.
I used to smoke. Quiting was probably the hardest thing I’ve ever done. The high price of cigarettes was one of the main reasons I didn’t take the habit back up. I thought cigarettes were expensive when I was addicted, but I was addicted. Once I was no longer addicted to nicotine, the high price of cigarettes seemed absolutely ridiculous. It really made me stop and think.
The truth is that if cigarettes were cheap, I probably would have started up again.
If Roscoe Bartlett is going to vote against a bill that helps provide health care for children, it shouldn’t be because it would make it harder for poor families to buy smokes. Once again Roscoe Bartlett uses the power of his office to vote against the best interests of the people in his district.
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What have the people of our district done to deserve Roscoe Bartlett?
I’m not big fan of taxes, and it’s not the government’s job to help people quit smoking, but if they need to raise money for something important (providing health insurance to children, just to pick an example completely at random), I can’t think of a better way to do it than to jack up the taxes on smokes and booze. They aren’t what you’d call essentials, so I don’t see how higher taxes on cigarettes could possibly be seen as harming low-income families. Taxes on milk and eggs, sure.
Luckily, those evil Democrats haven’t thought of that one yet! At least we know that when they do, Roscoe Bartlett will be there to protect low income families from that scurrilous attack, just as he has acted this time to protect them from having health insurance for their kids. Thanks, Roscoe.
–Steve
I don’t know why people keep on re-electing Roscoe. It’s a mystery to me. Especially this last election. Unlike past elections, we actually had a real good alternative in Andrew Duck. He’s running again and I will be voting for him again. He’s good people.
I don’t think the government has a duty to help people stop smoking, but they should at least stop subsidizing tobacco farmers. I do believe that the high cigarette tax stopped me from picking the habbit back up. It really made me think twice.
That’s the hardest part of kicking the habit. Staying off them once you quit. It is so easy to fall back into it.