If you are a smoker and wondering why you’ve been paying extra for cigarettes, it’s all thanks to the Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2009.

The Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act raised the national tobacco tax to help fund for affordable health insurance for children. The tax has been raised from $0.39 to $1.01 combined with the state tax; hence one might be paying anywhere from $1.43 to $3.76 for a pack of cigarettes.

One might feel such taxation might actually be good thing as a way to discourage people from smoking and at the same time attempt to help children whose families can’t afford the over priced health insurance.

Its interests may look decent (because it involves children and tobacco taxation), but really, this plan is flawed and the justification is complete idiocy. Why? Because smokers are being forced to pay extra for some brat’s health insurance.

It would have been more rational or acceptable if the tax was going to be used for universal health care but instead people are going to be taxed to fund a legal Ponzi scheme.

Smokers will be funding the scheme of health insurance industries and the American Medical Association while they at the same time will continue to rip off the American people with over priced promises and marginal quality in service.

One is better off investing with Bernie Madoff, because at least you know you’re going to lose your life savings.

Besides, Barack Obama was the only major candidate who promised universal health care (among other reasons why we all voted for him), so to have us paying sales tax to fund health insurance is a stab in the back.

Then comes the next question of why smokers are forced to fund a Ponzi scheme for some crying little brats. This is just another excuse for lazy parents not taking responsibility for their

own kids.

It would have been reasonable to use the tax for something that smokers or everyone could benefit from. A good example would be funding research into curing cancer; such an action would benefit not just smokers, but also the annoying little brats and their

lazy parents.

The government was better off raising the taxes on something that really does harm children such as junk food. Since kids eat too much junk food, which leads to illness, it could be taken care of with heath insurance funded by the taxed junk food. Obesity has become an epidemic, thanks to all the junk kids eat, so it would be logical to tax it.

If smokers are going broke just to fund a Ponzi scheme for brats, what else is next? Will we have to raise the tax on gas to support the Saudi Royal Families lifestyle or raise the tax on alcohol to fund a senator’s pension?

If such blasphemous taxes are imposed for schemes as opposed to something that the benefits the society as whole continues, then we could never expect this nation to solve any of its issues without creating more along the way. In the end we might as well sit back and enjoy that over taxed cigarette as we watch the world burn.