This Is Where Your Cigarette Tax Money Will Go

We noticed a story in liberal La Socialista (a.k.a. The State newpsaper) the other day which basically said that nobody was standing up to oppose South Carolina’s proposed fifty cent cigarette tax hike.

We suppose that’s true – at least if your “journalistic” M.O. is to not look for any opposition.

As it turns out, though, somebody is standing up against this tax hike.

Us.

South Carolina’s record of managing cigarette-related revenue is a joke, people, and if anyone honestly believes it’s a good idea to deprive South Carolina’s private sector of another $140 million so that our borderline retardede government can pour it into the same bloated, porous, unaccountable system, they’re crazy.

Our health care delivery system is broken – and not just because we have eight state agencies that deal with health care.

It’s broken because we haven’t fixed Medicaid eligibility requirements, and because we’ve failed to crack down on rampant fraud and abuse within the system.

As a result, Medicaid costs in South Carolina are soaring – increasing by 8 percent annually, last time we checked. That’s unsustainable – with or without a cigarette tax increase.

Now, does the cigarette tax hike that’s currently sailing through the General Assembly (on the strength of an armored car’s worth of Blue Cross Blue Shield political contributions) address any of these concerns?

Does it fund fraud prevention?

Does it require the consolidation of health care delivery services?

Does it insist on eligibility reform?

Of course not – it just pours more money into the same broken system, which makes it not unlike our state’s approach to public education, or for that matter pretty much anything lawmakers touch.

In fact, even if this tax hike passes, our state’s bloated system will be back in the red again by 2014 – at which point we’re sure cigarette tax supporters will come back for another bite at the apple.

Pathetic.

Of course, the sad truth is that this whole thing is nothing but a for-profit ploy being played out for the benefit of Blue Cross Blue Shield – the company stroking all those checks, and the company whose CEO Ed Sellers recently purchased a multi-million dollar beachfront home on Sullivans Island, S.C.

Guess his new casa needs some gold leaf window treatments … or platinum faucets.

Look, we shouldn’t be raising taxes on any South Carolinians in this economic climate. Period.

And we certainly shouldn’t be doing it without fixing the system all so some rich dude can get richer.

That’s garbage, no matter what the political advertising department over at La Socialista tells you.

Count on FITS to keep you up to speed on this tax hike … and to let you know which bought-and-paid-for Senators and Representatives cast their votes in favor of this latest ‘mo money scam.