Thursday, August 14 2008
(NATO E-News) - Five national trade organizations have joined with NATO (
The National Association of Tobacco Outlets) and signed a letter which is being faxed today to 160 key U.S. Representatives that voted late last year to prevent an override of President Bush’s veto of the $35 billion dollar expansion of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). Last fall, Congress passed a bill twice to expand the SCHIP program to provide health insurance coverage to children in families that earn up to $83,000 annually. The $35 billion funding expansion would have been paid for by unprecedented and punitive increases on all tobacco products.
With the Democrats in Congress likely to vote on a third SCHIP expansion bill after Congress returns from its August recess, NATO used roll call votes from the U.S. House of Representatives to identify the 160 U.S. Representatives that continued to oppose the SCHIP expansion by not voting in favor of overriding the President’s second veto. The letter being sent to these 160 representatives is signed by the American Wholesale Marketers Association, the National Association of Convenience Stores, NATO, the National Association of Truck Stop Operators, the Petroleum Marketers Association of America and the Southern Association of Wholesale Distributors (see accompanying copy of the letter).
The letter informs these representatives that the federal government will fall far short of collecting the estimated $35 billion in cigarette and tobacco taxes and warns of an inevitable black market for tobacco products if the bill is enacted into law. The organizations also inquire about what alternative revenue source Congress will turn to for SCHIP funding when cigarette and tobacco tax collections fall far short of projected amounts. The letter closes with a direct request that these U.S. Representatives continue to oppose the SCHIP bill to protect the very existence of retailers, wholesalers, manufacturers and the jobs of their collective employees.
NATO Launches National Grassroots Effort to Oppose SCHIP
Since the first week in August, the NATO legislative staff has been contacting those NATO members that are represented by one of the 160 U.S. Representatives that voted to sustain President Bush’s veto of the SCHIP bill. These contacts are being made to assist NATO members set up personal meetings with their specific U.S. Representative while they are back home during the Congressional August recess to explain the devastating consequences of the SCHIP bill and the cigarette and tobacco tax increases contained in the legislation.
NATO to Send Commentary Letters to Newspapers to Oppose SCHIP
As the third prong of NATO’s nationwide effort to oppose a third SCHIP bill, NATO will be sending a commentary letter-to-the-editor to almost two hundred newspapers published in the various home state districts of the 160 U.S. Representatives that voted to uphold the President’s veto of the SCHIP bill. With Congress in recess, the goal is to have the U.S. Representatives read about the severe budget shortfall that the SCHIP program would encounter if the tobacco taxes are increased and to educate the public about the need for Congress to seek out alternative funding sources for the expansion of this program.
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