Another expansion of government by another RINO on the Left Coast.

Oregon Sen. Gordon Smith wants to increase federal cigarette taxes to expand children’s health insurance.

If approved, his plan to raise the tax as much as 60 cents a pack could couple with a proposed state increase to leave smokers paying an extra $1.45 a pack to light up.

Smith’s announcement on Tuesday follows his endorsement last week of Gov. Ted Kulongoski’s proposal to expand the state’s children health insurance program by increasing tobacco taxes 84.5 cents a pack.

“For a country as wonderful as ours, it is to me unthinkable that there are so many children who go without basic healthcare,” said Smith, a member of the Senate Finance Committee, which oversees the health care program.

The Oregonian

I agree, Gordon, it is a shame, but it’s not your job to be their nanny. A child’s health care is the responsibility of his parents, not the Federal government. The more of a role Washington keeps taking in parenting America’s children, the less responsible parents are going to become.

This legislation is also running concurrent to another piece of legislation by the Socialist Democrats to increase the Federal Cigar Tax from five cents to TEN DOLLARS. That’s right, a 20,000 percent increase, for the children. It is always for the children, after all.

For those of you political junkies out there 18 Dougherty Street, an online video platform in the UK, has an interesting panel on the upcoming By Elections in the UK and how the blogosphere across the pond is making a difference. The two big races are Sedgefield, Tony Blair’s old seat, and Ealing Southall which is a majority minority district that has never elected a Conservative.