In fact, the share of Americans age 18 and over who smoke has dropped from 42.3 percent in 1965 to 25 percent in 1993. Clearly, that's good news for Americans' health, but it also means that any proposal to pay for children's health care with cigarette taxes would be making a false promise to children. The government cannot guarantee an adequate supply of smokers over the years to pay for a children's health care program. In the end, all taxpayers, not just smokers, would foot the bill. Reporters shouldn't keep this from their readers and viewers.
Tobacco taxes are unfair.
Through combined federal and state taxes on cigarettes, smokers already pay enough taxes to cover the net costs they impose on society. For those reasons, cigarette taxes are one of the most regressive taxes even more regressive than taxes on beer, wine, or gasoline. Today's politicians understand the difficulty in rolling back entitlement programs once they've been created. Democrats and Republicans alike find it very difficult to reduce the rate of growth of Medicare. Politics, not sound economic policy, is the only answer.