Posted on 05/10/2002 1:41:21 PM PDT by Jean S
Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson just dumped a load of toxic waste on two of President Bush’s most pristine principles: Taxes should be cut, not raised, and tax cuts should go to everyone, not a privileged few.
Specifically, Thompson floated proposals for a new tax on tobacco and for a tax credit that would be granted only to people who engage in healthy behavior as judged by government bureaucrats.
Thompson floated the two tax proposals without notifying anybody in the White House.
An Associated Press reporter asked Thompson on May 3 whether the government should increase taxes on cigarettes. "Why not?" said Thompson. "I’m for it, but I’m talking as Tommy Thompson now, not as a member of the administration."
Two days later, the Chicago Tribune reported that Thompson, as part of "what he hopes to be the defining quest of his tenure," was "willing to consider the unconventional" in improving the health of Americans. Thompson, the paper said, was studying a special tax credit for people who, as the Tribune put it, "stay in shape."
"I haven’t figured it out yet," said Thompson. But stay tuned.
The day after the Chicago Tribune ran this story Thompson taped an interview with Judy Woodruff of CNN’s "Inside Politics." Here is their exchange:
Woodruff: ". . . I read that among other things you are considering a tax credit for people who take good care of themselves. Are you serious about that?"
Thompson: "I am serious about advocating new ways in which we can try and make people healthier, Judy. And one of those things is exploring the possibility of a tax credit. The problem with it is how do we show proof that people are actually doing what they say they are? It’s very hard to monitor."
Woodruff: "You’re also looking at maybe a tax increase for people who use cigarettes?"
Thompson: "Well, I’m looking at a tax on tobacco and thinking that that’s certainly . . . all part of the thing to remain healthy."
This is a totalitarian idea. Washington liberals never stop trying to convert the tax code into a tyrant’s tool—a weapon to force Americans to behave the way liberals want them to behave. Targeted tax credits and tobacco taxes topped Al Gore’s agenda. But Tommy Thompson works for Bush, not Gore. And Bush was elected promising to cut taxes, and not target tax relief to a privileged few.
A Thompson tobacco tax would infringe on the freedom of smokers by making them pay more to government, and on the freedom of non-smokers by using tobacco taxes to fund more government.
But Thompson’s healthy-behavior tax credit is an even worse idea. It would put federal bureaucrats in the business of deciding whose private life deserves a tax break and whose does not. Guess which American the health Nazis would favor: the monogamous middle-aged beer-guzzler who belts down cheeseburgers on Saturday nights, or the tee-totaling 20-something distance runner who spends his weekends at a bathhouse?
And what about 90-year-old chain-smokers? Would they get retroactive tax bonuses? Would the heirs of a 45-year-old vegetarian who drives into a wall after smoking pot need to repay old tax credits to Uncle Sam?
The Communist regime in Beijing is insufficiently intrusive to effectively monitor and enforce Thompson’s tax credit. But that did not stop him from floating it on national TV before discussing it with his boss, the Republican President of the United States.
HHS spokesman Campbell Gardett told me that Thompson may not have "meant to suggest a special tobacco tax" when he told Judy Woodruff he was "looking at a tax on tobacco." What he may have meant, said Gardett, "is that not smoking would be part of tax credit sort of idea." He did not contest, however, the accuracy of the CNN videotape or the quote published by AP. Wanting an increase in tobacco taxes, Gardett added, "is not a new position for HHS."
Thompson, he said, "did mean to suggest possibly new and interesting ways of giving people credit for taking care of themselves."
"These are ideas that he wanted to air, so he did," he said. "But these are very much his personal ideas." He stressed that Thompson had not yet discussed them with anyone in the White House or with any Republican in Congress.
He just put them out there in the national media first? I asked. "Yes," said Gardett.
Does he intend to go to the White House or Congress with them? I asked. "Well," said Gardett, "that would depend on what happens next. I don’t believe he has any immediate plans to, no."
The White House did not want to draw any more attention to Thompson’s personal ideas than Thompson already had. Asked to comment on them, White House spokeswomen Mercy Viana noted only that Thompson had said his statements reflected his own views and not those of the administration.
But increase a direct tax on US consumers or income and he is done. The same tactic is going to be used on him as was his father. The RATS will push and push and push for a tax increase of any kind. When Bush goes along they will immediatly go on the campaign trail "he lied about not raising taxes! He is no different than his father!" And the sheep will eat it up.
"We", no. The great masses of sheep who pay more attention to the box scores or the latest story line on their favorite soap than to their government, yes.
Doggoneit, leave my cigarettes alone!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.