Taxing the Poor
by John Goodman

On Christmas Day 2002, Jack Whittaker won the lottery. He won big. At $315 million, he held the largest single winning ticket in the history of American lotteries.

Where did all that money come from? It came disproportionately from people on the bottom end of the income ladder, people who might otherwise have paid the rent, clothed their children or put food on the table for their families. (Whittaker, by the way, is an exception to the general rule; he was already worth $1 million before he bought his lucky ticket.)

As a result, that fateful Christmas Day will be remembered for achieving yet another milestone: An act of government that created more inequality per dollar spent in the shortest amount of time in all of human history.

Not everyone cares about inequality, but there are certain people known to be obsessed by it. So what, you may ask, did the New York Times editorial page have to say about this travesty? Not a word. Ditto for the Washington Post. What about Paul Krugman? Zippo. Bob Herbert? Nada. John Edwards? Zilch. What about all the other Democratic presidential candidates? Not a peep. As Bob Dole might say, "Where's the outrage?"

Low income lottery players not only propelled Jack Whittaker into the ranks of the super-rich, they also helped pay for government services in states that participate in Powerball. Because these states create a lottery monopoly and outlaw all competitors, they are able to rake off a third or more of the money for themselves, compared to the four or five percent the house takes in Las Vegas or Atlantic City.

So what does all this have to do with health care? A lot, it turns out. Health care is government's fastest growing expenditure and the favored way of raising revenue these days is.you guessed it.taxing the poor. Through lotteries, taxes on tobacco and alcohol and a host of other excise taxes, politicians have shown unmatched creativity in finding newer, cleverer ways to squeeze more money out of people who have the temerity to be poor.

At the federal level, the newest idea is to tax poor cigarette smokers in order to provide health insurance to the children of the middle class. I wish I could report that congressional liberals will be in opposition; but, hey, it's their idea!

The National Center for Policy Analysis has released a task force report, drawing on all current academic research, on ways that government punishes people who have less than the rest of us.

Moral of the story: Go and be poor no more.

John Goodman is president of the National Center for Policy Analysis. For the Task Force Report, "Taxing the Poor," see http://www.ncpa.org/pub/st/st300/st300.pdf.