Tobacco Users to Senate Democrats: Stop Raising My Taxes to Fuel Your Big Government Agenda!

ATR opposes yet another attempt by Congressional Democrats to raise taxes.

WASHINGTON – The American Heart Association (AHA) is joining with Congressional Democrats in an effort to raise excise taxes . In an e-mail to individuals the AHA is advocating support for an amendment offered by Senators Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) that would increase the federal tax on tobacco.

Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform declared, "Senate Democrats just want to create an additional stream of revenue to pay for their vision of an expanded government that will solve the world\’s problems. The only problem is that these funds come out of the pockets of hard working Americans."

The Harkin-Feinstein amendment is one of several amendments introduced by Senate Democrats to either roll back President Bush\’s tax cuts or eliminate the ability to provide tax relief entirely. Already Senate Democrats led by Tom Daschle and John Kerry have threatened to roll back the 2001 and 2003 tax-rate reductions and require a 60 vote super majority to pass any future tax cuts. These proposals are only intended for one purpose; to fund the Democrat\’s big-government spending agenda.

While Senators Harkin and Feinstein, along with the AHA, claim that raising the federal excise tax on tobacco will solve current diseases like heart disease and stroke, the truth is that the amendment just increases the tax burden on those that are least able to pay it.

" It is not enough for John Kerry to call for repealing President Bush\’s much needed tax cuts, now his Senate Democrat friends want to get in on the action and call for increased taxes on the American consumer ," said Norquist. " It is time for these Democrats to be held accountable for their policy choices . They cannot continue to claim to be for the poor and downtrodden while openly advocating increasing their overall tax burden."