North Coast Oregon

Articles listed under the tag: Oregon

Two Gripes

by Luke Rummell

Kulongoski, Smokers, Democrats and Fuzzy Math

by Tryan Hartill

I’m sure everyone is very familiar with the “Healthy Kids” business that is coming from Salem at the moment. Ted K. and the Dems want to put a tax on tobacco to pay for every kid in Oregon to have health care. On the surface this looks like it might not be too bad of a deal. If you believe the critters in Salem, smokers are the evil outcasts of society. Why not tax them some more and use the money for a good cause?

But this is only half the story. At the same time they are going to implement this tax, there is also a push to outlaw smoking in restaurants and bars. But wait…There’s more!

Just today, there is a bill on the table to ban smoking in cars when a minor is present.

House Bill 2796 says “A person commits the offense of smoking in a motor vehicle if a person smokes cigars, cigarettes or tobacco in any form in a motor vehicle while a person under 17 years of age is in the motor vehicle.”

The bill would set maximum fines at $90 for the first offense, which would be a Class D traffic violation; $180 for a second offense, which would be a Class C traffic violation; and $360 for the third offense or more, which would be a Class B traffic violation. The bill was introduced by Rep. Sara Gelser, D-Corvallis. Eight other House Democrats signed on in support of the proposal.

Is anyone seeing a problem yet? On one hand they are attempting to outlaw smoking in 20 or 30% of the places that people smoke, raising the price 85 cents a pack and then expect people to keep buying the same as they have in the past to pay for a Government program.

Do they employ economists at the Capitol?

Other issues that very few seem to be talking about is the number of kids on the program. Ted says 117,000 are uninsured and the tax would raise enough to cover all of them.
So my question to anyone in the know is, why in H-E double hockey sticks would any parent buy insurance for their kid with this program on the books?
If 117,000 kids don’t have health insurance, 500,000 or more do have insurance.

Any parent that wants to save 60-80 bucks a month is going to cancel their child’s insurance a enroll them in the State program.

Is that 85 cents a pack tax going to pay for the program now? NO chance! Now who is going to pay for much of the program?

I trust they will come up with something and it won’t be those evil butt-puffers anymore.

We’ll all have to foot the bill through higher taxes….We’re all smokers now…....

I’m actually not a opponent of socialized health care for every kid in Oregon. But if it was up to me I would say “Fine…have free insurance for all minors, but first you must cut other government programs that are equal to the cost of the kiddie program.”
Since my opinion on this represent about 1% of the population in Oregon, it will never happen…so yes on second thought, I am against the “Healthy Kids Program”.

The Bigger Picture

But the worst part of this whole deal is we still have a long way to go. Now that the Dems have complete control of our State Government they are drunk with power. They are going to push every Nanny-State and Tax and Spend program they can till the next election in 2008.

This is only the beginning.

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