Stop Iowa’s Health Care Slush Fund Scheme
Stop Iowa’s Health Care Slush Fund Scheme
This week, the Iowa Senate began debating Governor Culver’s proposed $1.00 per pack cigarette tax increase. The current tax is $0.36 and will go to $1.36 if the plan goes through. Proponents of the tax hike claim the money will go towards funding health care – a kind of “health care slush fund.”
In reality, Iowa lawmakers are forcing taxpayers to foot the bill for a wasteful expansion of government with no guarantee that revenue from the tax hike will go towards health care interests at all. Iowa could just as easily follow the example of Georgia, Florida and New York, where cigarette taxes were raised for one project, but then used to fund another.
If politicians want to get serious about fixing health care problems in Iowa, they need to look at real, market-based reform and not saddle Iowans with yet another tax increase.
Use our automatic email system today before the debate goes any further and send a clear message that you OPPOSE THIS SLUSH FUND SCHEME.
Democrats are blatantly trying to frame this massive tax hike as “not about money but about saving lives," hoping to play politics with this serious issue and scare conservative lawmakers away from their limited-government leanings.
Cigarette taxes are an unstable source of revenue, especially as higher prices force smokers to seek cigarettes through cheaper means such as Native American reservations, online or from nearby states with lower tax rates, like Missouri. Small business owners that run convenience stores and taverns, wind up getting hit hardest by the tax. And in the end, the state is left with an oversized healthcare budget they have no way of funding.
Dick Armey
Chairman
FreedomWorks
