The Swine Line

U.S. smoking rate stalled at 21 percent, CDC says

Nearly 21 percent of Americans smoke, a number that has been stalled since 2004, federal researchers reported on Thursday in a study they said means governments must spend more to persuade people to kick the habit.

More than 45 million Americans smoked in 2006, or 20.8 percent of the population, 80 percent of them daily smokers, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported.

The CDC said the numbers have not changed since 2004…

…Numbers ranged from more than 50 percent of men with a high school equivalency diploma, to 4.6 percent of Asian women. More educated people were less likely to smoke, with 6.6 percent of those with graduate degrees being smokers.

This new study confirms what CAGW has noted in the past, cigarette taxes target those SCHIP is supposed to help: the working poor, who are statistically more likely to smoke.  

The Heritage Foundation found that the government will need 9 million new smokers in the next five years to generate the kind of revenue it needs to pay for SCHIP, 22.4 million by 2017. Since that is considered highly unlikely, taxpayers would end up footing the bill for SCHIP in other ways.