Obama Tobacco Tax To Fund Preschool Faces Industry Resistance
Though President Barack Obama's administration hasn't formally released its 2014 budget, one component is already facing resistance from the tobacco industry.
That's because the president plans to foot the bill for a major new pre-kindergarten program in part with an increase in tobacco taxes, The New York Times first reported Friday and the White House confirmed to HuffPost.
The proposal would expand pre-K access to all 4-year-olds whose families make below 200 percent of the poverty line. The Huffington Post first reported the preschool plan in January, and Obama later teased it in his State of the Union address. At the time, some estimated it could cost as much as $100 billion.
The administration at first promised the plan would not increase the federal deficit (to which one senior Republican Senate aide notably retorted, "pixies, unicorn farts, and trillion-dollar coins"). Officials have not
That's because the president plans to foot the bill for a major new pre-kindergarten program in part with an increase in tobacco taxes, The New York Times first reported Friday and the White House confirmed to HuffPost.
The proposal would expand pre-K access to all 4-year-olds whose families make below 200 percent of the poverty line. The Huffington Post first reported the preschool plan in January, and Obama later teased it in his State of the Union address. At the time, some estimated it could cost as much as $100 billion.
The administration at first promised the plan would not increase the federal deficit (to which one senior Republican Senate aide notably retorted, "pixies, unicorn farts, and trillion-dollar coins"). Officials have not