The Political Whore

From The Stogie Guys:

The 700 percent excise tax increase on “large” cigars that Obama signed into law on February 4 goes into effect today. The tax is part of a series of increased tobacco taxes raised for the controversial State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP).

Under SCHIP, large cigars will be taxed at 52.75 percent, with a cap of 40.26 cents per cigar. This enormous increase, up from the previous rate of 20.719 percent with a cap of 4.875 cents per cigar, has many worried that it will devastate an industry already under siege due to state tax hikes and smoking bans.

Cigarettes go up $1 a pack, and even chewing tobacco sees a tax hike, to $1.51 a lb. from 58.5 cents.

I wrote yesterday about the impact of the SCHIP reauthorization on tobacco. Today, pro-immigration forces are picking up the ball and discussing just how anti-immigrant the GOP’s position on SCHIP is. America’s Voice, a rapid-response communications group that focuses on immigration, fired this out to the Internets today:

In the first test of the Republican Party’s new Latino outreach strategy, GOP leaders are reaching for their old talking points.  As reported by National Public Radio today, Ensign and other Republicans are voicing strong opposition to provisions in the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) bill that would allow legal immigrant children to access health care without a five year waiting period.  As Ensign put it: “It would seem to me that we are giving more incentives for folks to come to the United States, not just to participate in the American dream, but to get on the government dole.  And I think this is exactly the wrong direction we should be going with this legislation.”

Frank Sharry, executive director of America’s Voice, said Republicans have already forgottten the lessons of Nov. 2008:

It is hard to reach out to Latino voters on the one hand while opposing health care for hundreds of thousands of legally-resident Latino children on the other.  This is one Latino outreach strategy that’s doomed to fail.  At a time of national need, Republicans are playing politics and blocking progress on a solution to an important problem: health care for children.

Moreover, the politics behind this strategy have already backfired big time.  Didn’t Republicans in Congress get the memo following the November elections?  Latino voters generally, and Latino immigrant voters especially, fled the GOP and ran into the arms of Democrats in record numbers.  Evidently, telling people you don’t like them, you don’t respect their contributions, and their relatives should be deported doesn’t help you win their votes.

The full text from America’s Voice after the jump:

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I have nothing against the children of the working poor. And I actually wouldn’t mind if tobacco taxes were raised on my beloved cigars. But I do mind raising taxes on smokes — both ciggies and stogies — to pay for something not directly related to the social costs of those vices, such as lung cancer research, related health care or smoking prevention programs.

That is what is ready to happen in Congress. With a solidly Dem government, Nancy Pelosi et al. are using the opportunity to take up again the SCHIP bill, which President Bush vetoed last year. Here’s TBO.com on the legislation:

The bill uses tobacco taxes, including an extra 61 cents a pack on cigarettes, to expand an existing program providing health insurance for children of the working poor. It’s one of the most divisive issues Congress has considered recently.

The Democratic majority passed it in 2008 but couldn’t muster the votes to override former President George W. Bush’s veto.

This year, President Barack Obama says he’ll sign the bill. The House passed it Jan. 14, and it’s expected to come up for a Senate vote this week.

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