And people are not happy. Turns out people do not like it when they find out that they will also have to pay for these glorious progressive policies. In case you did not know, the legislation for this tax was one of the first items Obama signed in February (in the middle of the stimulus debate). One of those pieces of legislation that he said he would put on the web for 5 days for people to review, but didn’t. The tax brings the cost of a pack of cigarettes to $7-$10 depending on where you live and the revenue is to be used to pay for a government healthcare program for children. Tax and spend.
Here is the best quote I saw in the paper yesterday, “They’re picking on us poor people, the ones that smoke”. Interesting. So now that you have to help carry the tax burden, they are picking on you.
Although kind of ridiculous, it does bring out a good point. During the campaign and even since his election, Obama and his team have stated time and time again that they will not raise taxes on anyone making under $200,000. Well, in a round about way they have. The percentage of smokers is as high as 32% in the lower income brackets and decreases steadily as income increases. Whoops.
The other argument for the high tax is that it will force more people to quit and encourage others from starting. This may be true, but I doubt on a wide scale. And if this is the purpose and desired effect, why has Congress already allocated this money to pay for a government program? And if the number of smokers dramatically decrease, who will they go after next to get the needed money to pay for these new promised entitlements?
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
I especially agree with the last part - if they are truly successful in decreasing the amount of smokers, they will no longer have revenue coming in for their new program. Then what….
Booze
Don’t say that….not my booze….
My bet is actually on Ammo
I wander what American’s buy more of….ammo or booze.
They could just legalize wacky tobacky. We would be out of dept in no time and it would be a great way to get Willie to pay taxes.
This just means that they don’t actually expect the numbers to decline appreciably. Addicts need their nicotine. They’ll just give up other stuff. Maybe.
Dems are the kinds of killing the goose that laid the golden egg.
I agree, though. Use up one sin tax, they’ll just find another. I’m waiting for the federal Latte tax to kick in. Probably never happen…too many liberals drink lattes.
Maybe there’s some hope in this plan. If more people stop smoking and become healthier, then it could mean less people going to the doctor. But I don’t want the government to start raising taxes on every little thing. I think they should look at their own paychecks like your article from Friday talks about. I bet they could find some ways to cut spending if they really tried.
If that was there reason then sure, but it wasn’t. Its all about taxing to spend.