There are a number of anti-smoking measures which encroach on our personal freedom and right to enjoy cigars. Among these threats, the most urgent ones are ever-expanding smoking bans and the astronomical tax increase on cigars proposed by the Senate and Congress in order to expand the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). Please email us your thoughts and comments on Smoking Bans and SCHIP to comment@cigarrights.org. We would like to post them in our web site.

California invented Smoking Bans for the world. The Golden State banned smoking in most indoor workplaces in 1995, including the non-bar areas of restaurants. However, on January 1, 1998, the temporary exemption for more than 35,000 bars, casinos and bar-restaurants ended, and that was the beginning of the worldwide adoption of smoking bans. Now, fast forward 10 years, the city of Pasadena in California just adopted a strict outdoor smoking ban and the California legislature is now contemplating giving the owners of apartments buildings the authority to ban smoking on their property. Are we not going to be able to smoke even in our own home? Are the rest of America and the world going to follow this hysterical anti-smoking fervor? Surely, it will happen if we allow them. We must not allow our government to become a nanny state dictating to us how to live our lives.

Barry Fanklyn at Boise State University, Boise, Idaho, sums up the infringement of our freedom and right by anti-smoking hysteria:
          

"When lawmakers put forth legislation to ban smoking in a personal space (like inside a vehicle) they're walking a thin line. America was founded on the principles of individualchoice and now the government wants to control it.

I'm surprised more Republicans don't get up in arms about it. It's fine and good to exercise our right to own a firearm, but not to light up - - - -? There's a disconnection here between mortality.

Infringing on personal rights is a slippery slope, however far a reach it might be, who knows what might happen if we allow government regulation on the personal right to smoke. We might find ourselves not able to listen to certain kinds of music inside our cars, or restricted to a certain kind of political dialogue. We might find that we can't wear certain clothes or our hair a certain way."

Below, we are featuring the video clip of Kelvin Moxley'stestimony against the smoking ban in the state legislature of Tennessee. Moxley, a radio talk show host, eloquently speaks out why a smoking ban encroaches on our personal liberty.

Please join us in protecting our freedom and right to enjoy cigars.

The State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) is a U.S. federal government program that gives funds to states in order to provide health insurance to families with children. The program was designed to cover uninsured children in families with incomes that are modest but too high to qualify for Medicaid.

SCHIP was created in 1997 and initially authorized for 10 years. SCHIP was to expire in September 2007. So, in July 2007, the U.S. Senate and Congress tried to not only reauthorize SCHIP but also expand SCHIP by $35 billion by proposing a 20,000% increase in the federal excise tax on cigars and $0.61 tax increase on pack of cigarettes. After President Bush's first veto, the U.S. Senate and Congress modified the tax increase on cigars to 6,000% but the revised expansion of SCHIP was vetoed again by President Bush. Unfortunately, the SCHIP debate is not dead yet.
     
After two presidential vetoes, SCHIP was extended in its current form until 2009. When the U.S. Senate and Congress reconvene in September, they might try to increase the federal excise tax on cigars by 6,000% in order to authorize the bill for SCHIP expanded by $35 billion.

We support providing adequate health insurance to poor children. However, $35 billion expansion of SCHIP is flawed.  With a 6,000% increase in the federal excise tax on cigars, it will reduce the number of smokers and consequently, diminish the funding source. Furthermore, in order to generate the tax revenue needed for expanding SCHIP, Congress must find 22.4 million new smokers by 2017.

Please contact your Senator and Congressman, and let them know that even though you support providing adequate health insurance for poor children, you will not support the 6,000% tax increase on cigars.