Bunning doesn't like cigarette tax to pay for children's health insurance program

Says it will hurt Kentucky burely producers

By RONNIE ELLIS

FRANKFORT — Kentucky U.S. Senator Jim Bunning says he opposes funding for a federal-state health insurance program for children because changes in legislation now before the Senate create regressive taxes on the poor and permit states to include adults who don’t need the help. And it will further harm Kentucky’s burley tobacco farmers, he said.



The “budget gimmicks” used to fund the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP, KCHIP in Kentucky) for the next five years, Bunning said Tuesday, “are irresponsible and basically guarantee a tax increase five years from now. I also do not believe adults should stay in the program.”



Bunning said he supported the original legislation which created the program which assists states in providing health insurance for poor children, but cannot support the proposed changes in the current legislation to renew the program.



The bill before the Senate would increase the federal excise tax on a pack of cigarettes by 60 cents, to $1, which Bunning said will encourage cigarette manufacturers to move out of the country and lead to black market smuggling of cigarettes. Proponents say it will discourage youth smoking while helping fund health insurance for children of low-income families.



But Bunning says the bill is funded only for four years and that will result in tax increases to pay for it in five year. He said the number of burley producers in Kentucky has declined from 100,000 when he joined the Senate to around 32,000 today and the increased tax will reduce that number by a third. Asked if the tax would promote public health by discouraging youth smoking, Bunning said, yes – but:



“If they don’t grow burley in Kentucky, they will grow it in Brazil and they’re going to drive manufacturing off shore,” Bunning said. “If you want to put a business out of business, taxing is not the way to do it. Prohibition is the way.”



That tax is regressive, Bunning said, falling primarily on poor families whose members smoke more.



Bunning doesn’t think voters have yet begun to focus on next year’s presidential election and he thinks others may yet enter the race although he didn’t identify who might still enter beyond the known candidates and those like Republican Fred Thompson who are thought to be on the verge of entering the race.



“I don’t think all the players are in the game yet,” Bunning said. “And I think we’ll see some second tier candidates move into the first tier.”



Bunning said a key to candidates’ success will be to raise sufficient money to be competitive in a round of primaries in several large states in what is being referred to now as “Super Tuesday” a week after the New Hampshire primary. He called Thompson a “dear friend” but included him among those who must decide soon whether to enter the race in order to raise enough money to compete in those Super Tuesday primaries. He said he thinks Newt Gingrich is likely to decide whether to enter the race by September or October after he sees “the lay of the land.”



Bunning said he remains in favor of a constitutional amendment to require a federal budget, something he pushed for in the Kentucky legislature before going to Congress.



“Pay as you means absolutely nothing unless you have a balanced budget,” Bunning said., referring to current Democratic attempts to require any spending to be offset by identified revenue or reductions in revenue to be offset by corresponding cuts in spending. As for the inability of the previous Republican Congress working with Republican President George W. Bush to restrain spending, Bunning said that was caused by extraordinary expenditures for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and the federal response to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.



RONNIE ELLIS writes for CNHI News Service and is based in Frankfort. Reach him at rellis@cnhi.com.

Text Only