Not an April Fools Day joke: Obama tax hike hits today
posted at 3:05 pm on April 1, 2009 by Ed Morrissey
And the AP notices that it didn’t target the top 5% of earners, either. The cigarette tax increase that pays for S-CHIP takes effect today, and it will hit working class families the hardest. In fact, AP reporter Calvin Woodward sounds downright offended (via Jim Geraghty):
One of President Barack Obama’s campaign pledges on taxes went up in puffs of smoke Wednesday.
The largest increase in tobacco taxes took effect despite Obama’s promise not to raise taxes of any kind on families earning under $250,000 or individuals under $200,000.
This is one tax that disproportionately affects the poor, who are more likely to smoke than the rich.
To be sure, Obama’s tax promises in last year’s campaign were most often made in the context of income taxes. Not always.
“I can make a firm pledge,” he said in Dover, N.H., on Sept. 12. “Under my plan, no family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase. Not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your taxes.”
Some of the people in the populist class took notice, too. Smoking cessation hotlines are having a banner week in traffic:
Calling your state stop-smoking hot line for help kicking the habit? Expect a wait: Smokers are flooding the lines in a panic over an increase in the tobacco tax.
Denver-based National Jewish Health received triple the usual number of calls Monday for a March day to quit lines it runs in six states: Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Montana, New Mexico and Ohio.
The calls — 2,317 on Monday — had steadily increased all month as smokers began dealing with a big price hit in a sour economy. Not only does the per-pack federal tax climb from 39 cents to $1.01 on Wednesday, but the major cigarette makers raised prices several weeks ago in anticipation.
If Woodward is offended now, just wait until Barack Obama gets his cap-and-trade system passed in Congress, although he may have to wait until 2011 to get it. The increase in “fees” charged to energy producers will hit the lowest income earners the hardest as energy costs will skyrocket. It will eat up the disposable income of working-class families, some of whom may have to choose between heat and food in winter, thanks to the decrease in production and the rise in prices as producers pass along costs to the consumer.
Tomorrow, I’ll be talking with former Rep. Dick Armey about the cigarette taxes and their regressive impact on Americans. Is this the Hope and Change Obama promised? Tune in and find out!
Blowback
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alas, you’re obviously not a smoker.
sesquipedalian on April 1, 2009 at 4:03 PM
Good for you! I think having an alternate way of heating your home is always a good thing. Last year we installed a wood-stove insert into our living room fireplace and it’s unbelievable how warm our entire home is. During the day we were able to keep our home heated easily in the upper-70′s low-80′s.Yes, there’s a lot of work involved but it was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. And even with oil prices being relatively low this winter we saved a ton of money fuel-wise; while we could harvest a lot of our own wood we lucked out last spring and were able to purchase six cords of un-seasoned wood for $135.00 a cord. After the wood sat out all summer and fall it was ready to go this winter, and we figure it will be only another year or two before the stove has paid for itself.
Wonder how long it will be until Obama nixes heating with wood? Wouldn’t want to be basking in any warmth that he hadn’t properly approved of…
Niere on April 1, 2009 at 4:03 PM
As long as you are happy. That makes it good policy.
I like how your desire to quit must be met with punishment for everyone else as well.
lorien1973 on April 1, 2009 at 4:05 PM
Exactly, just ask the New England Journal of Medicine for specific information…
http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/abstract/337/15/1052
Wait, increased long term costs? People living longer will increase the overall costs even if everyone quit smoking? How can this be? It’s like smoking doesn’t actually raise costs, but is just a scapegoat to fund excessive taxation.
I’m sure this cannot be true. Obviously this hokum “New England Journal of Medicine” is in the pocket of Big Tobacco, and their sponsor this so-called “Massachusetts Medical Society” is fake as well. Weird that they have a properly source and peer reviewed paper with statistical analysis… no worries, I’m sure unsourced “common knowledge” is better.
At least we know the “obesity epidemic” is raising costs and really a problem we need to resolve to lower costs…
Right PLoS Medicine (a peer-reviewed, international, open-access journal publishing important original research and analysis relevant to human health)?
http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pmed.0050029
gekkobear on April 1, 2009 at 4:05 PM
Don’t give in to the man. Show him who’s boss. Maybe the Hot Air folks could agree to take up a collection.
hawkdriver on April 1, 2009 at 4:06 PM
Hey, just ’cause the phrase “in the world” got clipped at the end of the sentence, “I only want to tax the top 5%,” doesn’t mean you can immediately blame The Won. No, that responsibility falls to the Telepromter. Whose resignation I expect any day now, right after we get one from Timmay!, Holder, etc.
All Hail Obamia! All Hail Lord Sesqui!
I don’t smoke. But that was my choice, made many years ago. Each of us gets to make that decision for ourselves. So precisely who the hell are you to enforce your will on someone else? Or to demand that someone else do the dirty work of it for you?
Blacksmith on April 1, 2009 at 4:06 PM
So you think people should be financially forced by the Gov. to be healthy? Goodbye free will, goodbye freedom.
Greed on April 1, 2009 at 4:07 PM
So, you have to have Papa ‘Bama and the government force you to smoke rather than taking the hard path on your own or freely seeking the available resources to help you? You want to be a serf of Papa ‘Bama’s fine–be a serf…a peon…a dependent…a waif.
I, on the other hand, shall be a man–a free man. I will live my own life and will make my own choices and will not have Papa ‘Bama and his Chosen Ones tell me how to live my life.
Serf!
Matt Helm on April 1, 2009 at 4:07 PM
In fact, I am. I smoke for the children. And for the Arts.
myrenovations on April 1, 2009 at 4:08 PM
God bless your patriotic soul!
lorien1973 on April 1, 2009 at 4:08 PM
Amended: I should have said “Papa ‘Bama and the government force you to quit smoking…
Liberals–serfs and cowards the lot of them.
Matt Helm on April 1, 2009 at 4:09 PM
and who the fck do you think is bankrolling the military?
sesquipedalian on April 1, 2009 at 4:10 PM
Apparently, a self-loathing smoker.
cs89 on April 1, 2009 at 4:11 PM
Great comment.
And what I like is being both a descendant of the hearty stock of people who crossed this country in Conestoga Wagons and carved the greatest nation in the world out of a wilderness and belonging to a society where the other descendants can’t even control their own behavior without government help.
hawkdriver on April 1, 2009 at 4:11 PM
Military is, you know, a defined function of the government.
Not sure how this non sequitor applies.
Just embrace the command economy, man. Follow the orders of your overlords. Would ya?
lorien1973 on April 1, 2009 at 4:12 PM
No one EVER answers the question as to what happens when revenue goes down because people quit smoking. Whose sacred cow gets taxed next to fund the programs tobacco tax has been covering? Who gets taxed to replaced the income tax revenue lost because places who sell tobacco products earn less money?
katiejane on April 1, 2009 at 4:12 PM
Hey Ed, what’s with the pictures of ‘Cuda in relation to these articles?
Hammerhead on April 1, 2009 at 4:12 PM
I work and live in the city. Fortunately, I have family near Champaign and in-laws in Des Moines that we visit often enough to schedule out our large purchases. I still get tagged with gas often enough, but I’m lucky if I put 8,000 miles on the car, so it sort “evens” out on the gas side. However, paying $70+ for a tank of gas last summer sure makes you shake your head.
Neo-con Artist on April 1, 2009 at 4:13 PM
Wait till they tax sitting on your as@ watching TV or playing video games because it’s so unhealthy.
hawkdriver on April 1, 2009 at 4:14 PM
Haven’t read all of the posts; but, if my math is correct, that is a 158% increase in the cigarette tax.
cjs1943 on April 1, 2009 at 4:14 PM
sesquipedalian on April 1, 2009 at 4:10 PM
The military is for constitutionally-mandated self-defense.
Taxes on cigs is due to an overreaching nanny-state complex.
cs89 on April 1, 2009 at 4:15 PM
It’s for the children. Do you hate children?
lorien1973 on April 1, 2009 at 4:16 PM
I get my checks in a dark alley off post in downtown Fayetteville from a shady character who insists on being called Secret Agent Orange. Not too sure about the rest of the guys.
hawkdriver on April 1, 2009 at 4:16 PM
I am going to be sooooo patriotic when that tax comes.
Nothning better than playing some Madden while smoking.
You know, ’cause playing actual football is too tough on my lungs.
myrenovations on April 1, 2009 at 4:18 PM
Wood actually emits more CO2 than coal, oil, or gas for the amount of heat obtained. If Obambi puts CAPS on home CO2 emissions, you might want to TRADE your wood stove for a gas furnace.
Shhhhhh…don’t get him started!
Steve Z on April 1, 2009 at 4:22 PM
They already banned fireplaces in San Fran.
myrenovations on April 1, 2009 at 4:24 PM
And so it begins…
Locally, loose tobacco (I roll my own) is taxed even more… what used to be 8 or 9 dollars for a bag of Gambler will now cost me over $20
Ugly on April 1, 2009 at 4:24 PM
A friend of mine was a non-smoker… and died of lung cancer. She had none of the risk factors.
Lowlife… yeah, right…
newton on April 1, 2009 at 4:24 PM
lol
hawkdriver on April 1, 2009 at 4:25 PM
sesquipedalian, apparently, has decided to no longer defend his overlords.
lorien1973 on April 1, 2009 at 4:25 PM
that tax is called lost opportunity.
sesquipedalian on April 1, 2009 at 4:26 PM
i’m sorry about your friend. lung cancer is a terrible disease.
sesquipedalian on April 1, 2009 at 4:27 PM
They’ll go after the fatties, of course.
First they came for the smokers
and I did not speak out
because I was not a smoker.
Then they came for the fatties
and I did not speak out
because I was not a fatty…
Rae on April 1, 2009 at 4:27 PM
Of course.
1) You want to do something, based on your own desires.
2) You want the power to control others in spite of their desires.
Um, for the record though; I only support one of these two goals of yours.
#2 of course; and I want to force you to quit posting.
You of course support my desire to force you to stop doing something you otherwise want to do, right? You respect my desire to stop you from doing something; so you will go away, and never post here again, correct?
Or do you believe that you should get to stop other people from doing something legal they want, but other people should never be allowed the same privilege to make your decisions for you?
gekkobear on April 1, 2009 at 4:29 PM
Do you suppose Obama buys his fags on the black market to avoid the taxes like all of his cabinet appointees? Is “black market” racist? Crap!
jimmy2shoes on April 1, 2009 at 4:29 PM
Hey, has anybody noticed Sarah Palin rocks.
Sarah rocks ,repubics suuuccccckkk and democrats suck even harder.
The 2012 slogan
Don’t suck vote Palin/(person to be named later) ticket
kangjie on April 1, 2009 at 4:29 PM
In celebration of the One’s tax on the great unwashed I’ll be lighting up an Oliva V Serie tonight… then perhaps two more.
smfoushee on April 1, 2009 at 4:31 PM
That’s a great idea.
The “you aren’t doing what your overlords want” tax.
lorien1973 on April 1, 2009 at 4:31 PM
Even crazier, Washington state has banned Cascade.
jimmy2shoes on April 1, 2009 at 4:31 PM
I guess that will work – most people gain weight when they quit somoking. We’ll end up with black market Ring Dings & Snickers.
katiejane on April 1, 2009 at 4:32 PM
We should quantify. Put a price tag on it. That’ll show em!
Next, skateboarders because they drive up healthcare costs. (And the skateboarder “Worlds Most Shocking Videos” make me cringe).
hawkdriver on April 1, 2009 at 4:33 PM
But it makes the dishes and glasses sparkle. Do Democrats hate sparkle?
myrenovations on April 1, 2009 at 4:35 PM
Glad I don’t smoke… he won’t be getting money from me on this. Oh sure, I know my day is coming.
If you want a great bumper sticker, please check this one out. It will make you appear to be a supporter until others get close enough to read the fine print. Public domain… use it all you want. I uploaded a hi-rez version.
BoomJunkie on April 1, 2009 at 4:35 PM
But I suppose banning Cascade is okay, sesquipedalian hates doing dishes and wants to stop. She also wants others to stop washing dishes.
myrenovations on April 1, 2009 at 4:36 PM
I have a feeling that in the next few years we are going to see such a black market on “sin” items that it’ll put Prohibition to shame.
I can see it now–the Hotair libbie trolls as Papa ‘Bama’s new Untouchables.
Matt Helm on April 1, 2009 at 4:38 PM
How about that?!
It really is a racist bill!
Rae on April 1, 2009 at 4:38 PM
Well, our state sales tax went up to 9.25%. They always claim it is for police services but they never ever hire more cops than what they lose from attrition. They already raised our sewer fees twice last year for the same damn thing and not one extra cop in sight.
They raised our car registration fees and every other fee you can think of and our state income tax.
It’s nothing but tax tax tax with no increase in services. In fact, the services and infrastructure gets worse. What never decreases is their spending on themselves, including salaries and perks and junkets and jobs for their wives, husbands, and children and for services for illegals.
This place makes me want to puke.
Have an effin’ nice day!
Blake on April 1, 2009 at 4:50 PM
I am a recovering smoker.
No! Wait! Hear me out.
I started smoking occasionally while I was in High School.
When I entered the Navy I started smoking pretty heavily. (There are stories about me with a lighted cigarette at every butt-can in Main Battery Plot as I walked around doing stuff.)
I smoked cigarettes and a pipe for years (I’ll be 70 if I live much past tax day).
I have not smoked anything for several years (near ten, I think). I just decided not to light-up any more one day (I didn’t make a big deal of it at the time, or even note the date–hence the ambiguity above).
I recall that I was sick (cold? flu? one of those probably), at home, it was snowing, blowing, cold and foul outside and I was about to dress and drive the 7 miles (as I have on earlier occasions) to a store that had cigarettes.
I remember deciding that that was seriously insane, and went back to bed.
When I got well and back in the world, I decided, “well, I’ll wait a bit before I buy some”. I could because I had not told anybody I’d quit. I’m not sure yet if anybody has noticed (well, my wife has, and we have talked about because the medicos keep asking me about so they can tell be to quit).
As time went by the question came up (internally) less frequently, and the wait-a-bit period got longer.
But I still think about it every now and again, because I am a recovering smoker.
I may quit one of these days.
lsheldon on April 1, 2009 at 4:55 PM
Thanks. I don’t smoke, but my best friend does…he’s an American Indian, and I’m sure he’ll be buying on the rez from now on.
capitalist piglet on April 1, 2009 at 4:59 PM
What to do when people are hurting? Tax ‘em till they puke, of course.
capitalist piglet on April 1, 2009 at 5:00 PM
I think the Mexican drug cartels will start smuggling cigs in addition to heroin.
Most duggies I knew also had a serious smoking habit.
izoneguy on April 1, 2009 at 5:13 PM
The tax won’t stop at tobacco. Consider as others before me have written, other ‘sin’ taxes like:
McDonald’s
Chewing gum (only the kind with calories)
Candy
Soda
Carrots-you know how many toddlers choke on carrots each year in this country?!
Time to grow your own tobacco nicotine addicts.
This tax will not stop my husband from chewing Cope.
It’s the one vice he won’t quit.
When life is stressful for us low lifes, we gotta have some kind of a vice to get through life-not sayin’ it’s right, but it beats going & beating the hell out of a liberal when you’re PO’d.
My vice? Hot Air.
Badger40 on April 1, 2009 at 5:31 PM
Just another promise under the bus. Have lost count. But I do have a question for the ‘policymakers’. What happens if all the smokers quit? How you going to fund all those programs?
GarandFan on April 1, 2009 at 5:32 PM
lol lol
darktood on April 1, 2009 at 5:39 PM
If the obesity tax ever hits, it will not hit the overweight people – it hit anyone that buys anything ladden with sugar. Even if you weigh 100 lbs and want to buy a coke – it is going to cost extra you more.
txstar on April 1, 2009 at 5:39 PM
I quit after 30 years of smoking. It was harder to give up the cigarettes than it was to give up my exhusband.
Terrye on April 1, 2009 at 5:54 PM
You would not believe how much I am going to enjoy the day that the Feds, the nanny staters, the health nazis all come after something you holier than thou non-smokers enjoy and don’t want to pay a fortune for.
It could be fast food, or soda, or candy, or snacks, – or your guns. But they’re coming. And the immense satisfaction I will get from listening to your whining will more than make up for the extra $8 a carton (which I can afford) I have to pay to smoke.
rick moran on April 1, 2009 at 5:55 PM
With wealth redistribution, all things are possible. Don’t you know. If people give up smoking, then other taxes will take effect. If those taxes hurt the poor inordinately, then our fair president will subsidize them with utility help, food stamps, SCHIP+, etc. All in the name of fairness. Increasing taxes on the top 5% (or whatever number he pulls out next).
Increased government control of everything is good.
Everyone else who tried it and failed just didn’t do it properly.
BOHICA.
EntropyIncreases on April 1, 2009 at 5:58 PM
thanx for doing MY thinking for me there…`preciate it.
NY Conservative on April 1, 2009 at 6:39 PM
This BS tax is asinine. I don’t smoke, never have, but I will never understand why the funding for a health program is COMPLETELY dependent upon a massive increase in smoking.
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize that there are not enough smokers to cover the massive increase in 28 year old children that will be covered by this bill. I won’t even mention the massive increase in illegal aliens who will be latched on to this.
mcg0125 on April 1, 2009 at 6:44 PM
Dude, I know you can’t stand me, but that’s California with 9.25?
hawkdriver on April 1, 2009 at 6:45 PM
Which means of course that the new tax will fail to collect enough income and will be passed on as a general tax!
One foot in the door is all a good snake oil salesman needs.
PattyJ on April 1, 2009 at 6:57 PM
I think we should tax everyone that owns a bed. Lots of people die in their sleep. Have you ever noticed that all the sick people in hospitals are in beds?! Don’t think it’s just a coincidence! Think about it, you slept in a bed when you were a child; and haven’t you been sick since then. Talk about rising health care costs!! Don’t you see that beds are the leading cause of sickness and death?! HAVEN’T WE HAD ENOUGH OF BED RELATED DEATHS!!! And don’t forget about second hand bed related sickness — Cooties, crabs, scabies, lice, uneven tire wear, dropsy, the list is almost endless! Wont someone please think of the children?!
clawjockey on April 1, 2009 at 7:13 PM
We need the beds for baby making so we can cure spinal chord injuries and brest enhancement. Beds aren’t always evil. Strike a balance with us here. It’s not all black and white, Dude.
hawkdriver on April 1, 2009 at 7:21 PM
breast…
I can’t believe I misspelled my favorite word.
hawkdriver on April 1, 2009 at 7:22 PM
I can’t believe you misspelled it either.
However, you can make babies standing up against a wall. You can make babies all sorts of ways.
Tax the beds!
myrenovations on April 1, 2009 at 7:33 PM
The carton of cloves that I just bought was $11 more than the last one that I bought. Thanks Obama. Good thing I’ve got that $8/week coming.
rw on April 1, 2009 at 7:59 PM
Try, fictional.
Wait. That’s not very helpful.
Oh well. Neither is government.
tom on April 1, 2009 at 8:05 PM
It’s April Fool’s day, remember?
Maxx on April 1, 2009 at 8:43 PM
-
Actually….. Wood is carbon neutral. Trees absorb CO2 from the air, then release the exact same CO2 when they are burned. The part of wood heat that may not be all that CO2-friendly is the chainsaws, splitters, and transportation of wood to the stove. Plus, it depends how the trees are removed and whether or not they are replanted.
-
Once Cap-n-Trade kicks in, and coal, fuel oil, natural gas, and electricity all become unaffordable… the mass cutting of trees will commence. Wait until there are no trees within walking distance of any major US city and an artic freeze locks in half the country. I’m sure Boooosh will be to blame, but I’m not sure how yet.
-
RalphyBoy on April 1, 2009 at 8:47 PM
-
I say, balls up… A big fine and some serious jail time, as in you don’t get out until you quit should do it. Of course, once you have your first smoke in the joint you’ll forget all about quitting.
-
Oh, and the above only applies to people who smoke and say things like this… “i’m happy about the fact that the price is going up, because 1. i want to quit, 2. i want other people to quit, too”.
-
Quitting is easy as getting through the first week, and then NEVER, EVER starting again. And yes, I’ve been there, done that.
-
RalphyBoy on April 1, 2009 at 9:04 PM
A cigarette tax is oppressing poor people! Brilliant!
Keep stretching… reaching for that dream! Yes you can make it look like Obama is raising taxes on working class people!
Constantine on April 1, 2009 at 9:35 PM
These vice taxes always hurt the poor and the working class. The wealthy can shrug those off and buy more expensive vices to boot even with the higher taxes.
The Marxists decree that folks shouldn’t smoke, drink, nor drive too much anyway.
But, there again, legalizing pot is a viable option.
Marijuana is goooood for you…cigarettes are b…baaaah…baaaaaaaaaah!
Dr. ZhivBlago on April 1, 2009 at 11:45 PM
I for one am pro-quitting.
The government would not get any money then.
amkun on April 2, 2009 at 12:18 AM
thanks for the advice. i hope you weren’t in jail though.
so according to you, the poor and working class are more sinful than others? (wanna help the poor and the working class? donate to acorn!)
sesquipedalian on April 2, 2009 at 7:51 AM
I’m donating to ammo, because of ACORN.
hawkdriver on April 2, 2009 at 8:33 AM
Then they came for the fatties
and I did not speak out
because I was not a fatty…
Rae
Oh, crap!
SKYFOX on April 2, 2009 at 9:04 AM
LOL! Ex-husbands are pretty easy to give up, actually.
Badger40 on April 2, 2009 at 10:21 AM
I was a smoker’s child and I despise cigarettes more than I can say. I smelled like smoke every day. My clothes were grimy, I had bad acne, I always had upper respiratory infections, I couldn’t run a mile when I was a kid.
But I was also a POOR smoker’s child. Given the choice between food and smokes, we went hungry. I remember my mom unloading the groceries and seeing all the cartons and not a lot else. School lunches were my main source of calories.
So, thanks, Obama and the Democrats. There are going to be a lot of suffering kids out there. May God have mercy on your souls, because I can’t find any in my heart right now.
bonnie_ on April 2, 2009 at 10:30 AM
What happened to personal responsibility? Oops, I forgot. Never miss a chance to bash Obama.
Grow Fins on April 2, 2009 at 10:40 AM
Learned it from you guys.
hawkdriver on April 2, 2009 at 10:42 AM
I normally have no sympathy for smokers, but, in this case, they are canaries in the coal mine.
Count to 10 on April 2, 2009 at 11:25 AM
I smoke, have since I was a child (13)Not only that, I paid for my son’s health care when he was a child (without state assistance) Now I get taxed to pay for someone else’s child’s health care because I am engaging in a legal activity that supports an American industry and jobs. It pisses me off to no end that because smoking is no longer fashionable, smokers are to be vilified,scorned, punished and punitively taxed.
Sort of like being a conservative. . .all other commentators assume you are a hater, uneducated, white trash, none of which I am.
Willie on April 2, 2009 at 12:29 PM
I think this punative sin tax is simply going to turn out to be like the elderly problem with prescription drugs.
We’ll all be taking “bus” tours to states/Indian reservations/etc., where we can purchase, stealthly, cartons of cigarettes. *haha
Then, we’ll see the news.
:)
Obama’s federal tax will turn people into criminals, technically.
AnninCA on April 2, 2009 at 12:46 PM
But taxes on cigarettes are good for you, and so are the trillions spent on everything but stimulus, so that means the taxes to pay for those trillions is good for you too.
Speakup on April 2, 2009 at 12:52 PM
Taxation without Representation! Our society is running headlong into the type of government that was run out of the U.S. by the revolutionary war. It’s also why the want to take away your constutional right to bear arms. Appareently somewhere along the line we ended up on the wrong side Of Thomas Jeffersons famous quote.
TrickyDick on April 2, 2009 at 1:49 PM
What, Obama stick to his word post-election? As long as Teh One can afford his nicotine habit, all’s good. Remember. Sacrifice is for taxpayers, not the ruling class.
Vermont Neighbor on April 2, 2009 at 2:05 PM
BTW-the taxes BO says won’t touch us poor ba$tard$ in the lower classes are coming-Cap & Trade.
Those’ll raise my electric bill by 25-35% or more.
Who’s taxing the rich, BO?
You’re taxing EVERYBODY scumbag with these crazy ideas.
Dear God in heaven help us.
Badger40 on April 2, 2009 at 2:12 PM
Finally the poor are paying their way.
unclesmrgol on April 2, 2009 at 2:12 PM
I think TJ would agree we need a revolution today.
He would have been at the forefront-along with other crazy liberty-lovers like Hannity, Coulter, Limbaugh, etc.
Badger40 on April 2, 2009 at 2:13 PM
Sorry for you.
Hey I got the he!! beat out of me while I was growing up.
I think they should tax boxing.
Who is going to decide what gets taxed next? McDonald’s?
It’s coming.
Don’t encourage the slippery slope bcs of a bad childhood.
I don’t.
Badger40 on April 2, 2009 at 2:16 PM
Not more sinful. Just without the resources to, say, deduct the cigs as a business expense bcs we can’t afford to hire create accountants.
Donating to ACORN would be the same as donating to the Communist Party.
No thanks.
Badger40 on April 2, 2009 at 2:19 PM
You are racist and homophobic.
You are so screwed, Dude.
Badger40 on April 2, 2009 at 2:20 PM
You mean like personal responsibility to choose to smoke or not? Or take care of your personal health how you see fit? Or shouldering the responsibility of the consequences of those choices? How about the opposite of the Gov’t making you choose their choice by making it so the ‘wrong’ choice so expensive you have no other option.
I seem to recall another progressive movement that resulted in an amendment to the constitution that ultimately was repealed because it caused so much chaos and illegal activity. The same situation will arise from this. Contra-ban will be the wave of the next era. Canada already experiences this. In the early 90′s they passed taxes on cigarettes that were so high, they lost revenue as the smokers just imported their smokes from us illegally. Cases of cigarettes were trucked, shipped, and smuggled in a myriad of ways. All in an effort to not pay the taxes. The funny part was the explosion of sales on cigarette cases, like from the 50′s, stainless steel and all that so you didn’t know if the cigarettes had been taxed appropriately.
ammon_of_cs on April 2, 2009 at 2:23 PM
And can’t even afford the cigarette any longer! What a letdown.
jimmy2shoes on April 2, 2009 at 2:58 PM
gekkobear – Your claim seems to be that reducing unhealthy habits actually increases long-term health costs due to people living longer. This statement is only true if you consider money spent on treating avoidable health issues just as good as treating unavoidable health issues. Also, it leads to some pretty strange conclusions if examined closely. For example, it is much more expensive long-term to treat polio that it is to just let someone die. That doesn’t make it the moral thing to do.
maleman on April 2, 2009 at 3:00 PM
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