The State of West Goa's Secretary of Public Health has proposed a comprehensive new public health education and assistance program to help reduce smoking in West Goa. The Secretary is supporting a bill that would finance the program entirely by a dramatic increase in taxes on tobacco products. However, the legislature should not pass the bill, because those who will benefit from it—people who are attempting to quit smoking—are the least likely to bear the burden of financing it, since they are the least likely to purchase tobacco products.
Question
The Secretary of Public Health’s plan to finance the anti-smoking education and assistance program by dramatically increasing the tax on tobacco products is most called into question by which of the following?
Choices
A
Members of the State of West Goa legislature will hold open meetings in their home districts, at which they will listen to constituents’ views on the proposal for funding the anti-smoking program.
B
If the financing plan is approved, it will be necessary to fund an advertising campaign informing the public of the tax increase.
C
Tobacco consumers may stockpile tobacco products in an effort to avoid the increased tax for as long as possible.
D
A tobacco tax increase was briefly instituted in West Goa five years ago, but was repealed when the vast majority of tobacco users in West Goa began to purchase their cigarettes from the neighboring state of North Assam, which has no tobacco tax.
E
Lobbyists for the health insurance industry have strongly supported the anti-smoking program.