Sure we're all familiar with Graeme Frost and the personal face he and his family put on to the SCHIP debate, but on a site that encourages balanced and informative dialogue I think it's important to bring you a diary from someone SCHIP is harming.
Hi my name is Sean, I'm a smoker and Glen Beck told me that I would personally be paying for "Socialism". I don't exactly know what that is, but I do know it has to do with those bad people I've been hearing about on the radio like Hitler, Barack Hussein, and that eco-terrorist guy who wrote an inconvenient something.
A few months ago Congress was going to raise the tax on a pack of cigarettes 61 cents to pay for some health care program that supports rich kids. I smoke three packs a day and that increase would have cost me $1.83 a day. Lucky for me and others Democracy and the American military put a stop to it.
I know $1.83 doesn't sound like a lot of money to all you millionaires on Daily Kos, but to a person like me it adds up. For $1.83 a day I can take the bus between two and three zones and with the $1.83 I'd save the following day, I can take it home. I can check a book out of the library and keep it for as long as I want (as long as it's less than five days). Or I can just save the $1.83 cents every day for two years and afford to go on to Rush Limbaugh's website because he represents struggling working people like me.
The invisible hand should be paying for these kids healthcare, instead of sticking my money in the kids pocket. For only $14,000 a year a family of four like the Frosts can have healthcare, sure it may not include such luxuries as blood tests, diagnostic exams, and hospitalization, and it may have a $100,000 deductible but this is the sacrifice we Americans need to make to protect ourselves from terrorists. My cousin never needed to go to the doctor and she lived almost 40 years.
I know what you liberals are going to say, if I cut back to two packs a day I'll save more than enough money to pay for my smoking habit. My doctor says the same thing and all I can say is that he hates America too. Without smokers like me, this country could not support it's military. By raising the tax on me you are giving hope and comfort to the enemy and will subject this country to another 911 only it may happen on a different day.
So remember before you liberals cut and run, you think this socialist thing is a great idea but just know there is a face and a diary to those Americans you plan on harming.
Thank you,
Sean