SCHIP Up In Smoke

This morning's column by Herald politics columnist Beth Reinhard is so full of blog fodder that I just couldn't resist.

Tobacco tax clouds debate on kids' health

By Beth Reinhard

A cigar-store Indian and a pungent aroma greet customers at Miami's Sosa Cigars, next to the famed Versailles restaurant.

Boxes of cigars labeled Partagás, Cohiba and Padrón rise from floor to ceiling. A table for dominoes invites smokers with time to spare. Buy a humidor, bottle of wine or guayabera to complete the look of old Havana.

''Take a picture,'' quipped U.S. Rep. Mario Díaz-Balart, one of three Miami Republicans who oppose legislation expanding a popular children's health-insurance program, partly because it relies on higher cigar taxes. ``They're not going to be around much longer.''

Under a plan to pump $35 billion into the so-called SCHIP program, federal taxes on cigars would soar from 5 cents to an average of $3 per cigar, an increase of about 6,000 percent. Cigarette taxes would rise 61 cents, to $1 per pack.

''Why are they picking on us?'' demanded Sergio Pereira, who owns the Don Sergio Ramar Cigars factory in Miami. ``Cuba is rum, sugar and cigars.''

In a flame-fanning tirade on Spanish-language radio last week, Díaz-Balart called the tax hike an ''attack on the Cuban-American community.'' He added: ``It would hurt an industry specifically in Miami-Dade, in South Florida, an industry that is almost entirely Hispanic: those who make cigars by hand, which is a cultural tradition. That industry will not survive.''

Let's pause for a moment here. I like Mario Diaz-Balart, but his sound byte calling the tax an attack on the Cuban-American community is nothing short of ridiculous. I realize politicians like to indulge in hyperbole, but that one takes the pastelito de guayaba, Mario.

Let's proceed.

But put aside the Chicken-Little warnings, the appeals to ethnic pride and the romantic image of the family-run storefront. Consider that the program would extend health benefits to 10 million children on the strapping back of a deadly industry.

Whoa, one second here. At the surface, who could argue with Reinhard? Of course, that's what proponents of the bill want you to do. They just want us to look at it on the surface, because once you start digging, the pitfalls become plainly evident.

''Raising the price may cause some individuals to stop smoking, which would be a good thing,'' said Bill Corr, executive director of the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids. ``We have a product that is designed to addict and kill, and we have to take steps to protect the public health.''

Corr is affiliated with a nonprofit that tracks tobacco industry contributions and found that members of Congress who opposed the SCHIP expansion have received ''four, five, six times as much'' money than those who supported it. Díaz-Balart, and U.S. Reps. Lincoln Díaz-Balart and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, have received tens of thousands of dollars from tobacco over the past decade.

''They chose cigar makers over kids and politics over children,'' said Democratic Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Weston. ``I think they made a grievous mistake.''

Alright Debbie. Join the hyperbole club. Not as bad as Mario's, but not too far behind.

The national Democratic Party and left-leaning special interest groups have seized on SCHIP as a club to browbeat the Miami Republicans and other potentially vulnerable members of Congress. Radio ads in their districts warned them to ''to choose our kids.'' House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will be in South Florida next week to recruit potential challengers, including former Hialeah Mayor Raul Martinez.

The three Republican lawmakers have said repeatedly that they support the insurance program, but that the legislation doesn't go far enough to prioritize the poorest children, depends heavily on tax revenues from new smokers and enables 2 million children to replace their private health benefits with government subsidies.

Finally, all the way down near the end, we get some real substance behind the argument against SCHIP. Too bad only the patient reader would even get this far.

They voted no this week, contributing to the failure of Democratic leaders to muster enough votes to override President Bush's veto.

The cigar store Indian isn't going anywhere. The men in Little Havana will keep on smoking, and the children will keep on getting sick.

Bing! Reinhard wins the "drama queen" award of the week. Sorry Reps. Diaz-Balart and Wasserman-Schultz.

From reading this, it's obvious that I'm against the SCHIP expansion. Of course, that will also label me as being in favor of Big Tobacco instead of our children, right?

The SCHIP expansion would make families making up to $80,000 a year, much higher than the poverty level, eligible to receive the subsidy. It only takes a little common sense to figure out that a big chunk of those families in the upper end of that income scale already receive private health insurance for their children through their employers. It's also evident that those families making 60, 70 or $80,000 a year can afford a private health plan.

But wait! We're not taxing ordinary people, we're taxing smokers!

I have always been extremely skeptical of plans that depend on heavily taxing vices in order to fund well-intentioned projects. What happens when people kick a bad but perfectly legal tobacco habit because of a huge increase in taxes? Where then would the funding be for this bloated government subsidy? That's right. Those same people who are currently advocating so hard for children to not take up smoking will be seen banging on the doors of schools with cartons of cigarettes, begging kids to take up that nasty habit. After all, it's about children not getting sick.

I know, that last part was a bit of hyperbole on my part, too. Fits with the theme of the post, though.