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| -Lurid Crime Tales- | ||
| Clever Kaine | ||
| 2009-12-05 | ||
| Last year at this time, Kaine was trying to find ways to close the state's budget shortfall, then about $3 billion. Among other things, he proposed raising the cigarette tax to help cover a shortfall in Medicaid funding. Cutting Medicaid spending would close the rest of the gap. Yet as Kaine told the Lynchburg paper the other day, "There was some 'strategery' involved . . . .From working with the incoming Obama administration, [I knew] they were going to do a stimulus bill that was going to have Medicaid money [in it]. And I knew it was going to pass." But he didn't tell anyone. "I decided what I would do is, I would not make those cuts. Instead, I would propose a cigarette tax" -- one he knew would not get through the Assembly. "By putting the cigarette tax on the table too, I gave every legislator one way to make Philip Morris happy, by voting against the cigarette tax," Kaine explained. That would then leave lawmakers freer to vote in favor of the restaurant smoking ban -- which is precisely what happened: "A lot of [legislators] voted against the cigarette tax and then they voted for the smoking ban." It worked like a charm -- and it fooled us, too. Note: First Post by Airandee
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| Posted by:airandee |
| #1 He can't be gone soon enough for me. >:-( |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2009-12-05 21:58 |