The rise in cigarette tax for the health of our children.
I’m non-smoker.
Unfortunately, the people who proposed this legislation understand supply and demand about as well as a fish understands trigonometry.
When the cost of cigarettes goes up, people smoke less or quit smoking altogether. Then, the money that was supposed to go to health-care is gone. What do you think will be Congress’s response? Raise taxes on everyone, of course!
This reminds me of another piece of legislation here in Florida. The govt wasn’t making enough money on the toll roads so they decided to raise the price of the tolls. The problem is that now, nobody uses the toll roads because they are too expensive.
When most people stop smoking, how is the non-existent tax money supposed to pay for anything?
This legislation is counter-intuitive and it doesn’t make an ounce of sense.
At 10 bucks a pack of smokes–don’t you think that is heavily taxed?
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Canadian
The tax was implemented
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It’s all smoke and mirrors.
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to many people quit. hahahaha
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i say do it. it’s ur choice to smoke, u know the gov is going to tax it, so it’s ur own fault for paying the tax. stop smoking and you will not have to pay.
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Light it up, liberals. It’s for the children. Have some passion!!!!
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you don’t like the cigarette tax? don’t smoke.
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The best legislation ever.
Lets inner city dwellers pay for health care of their offspring.
Let them also notice which party raises taxes on them.
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I think the government is guilty of contributing to the deaths of its own citizens by keeping tobac legal. Weed is probably safer.
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that is a good question where is that money going and i think that bud was taxed like cigs that help with taxes and get off the streets into the stores and better controlled
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less smokers……so less people to tax not the liberal utopia
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it’s a bunch of BS is what it is. so what’s going to happen when everyone stops smoking b/c they can’t afford cigarettes? are they going to start taxing the heck out of alcohol? i say tax the fat people for their food. or how bout taxing junk food for the health of our youth. people will stop eating doritos then. more democratic strategy that stinks.
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Smokers quit smoking; they got tired of paying for other peoples progeny that could not afford the cost of paying for a child conceived for the lack of a 0.50 rubber.
Hello. They are not my children. They are not my grandchildren. Why should smokers pay for the bad choice of those without morals?
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Unfortunately, the people who proposed this legislation understand supply and demand about as well as a fish understands trigonometry.
When the cost of cigarettes goes up, people smoke less or quit smoking altogether. Then, the money that was supposed to go to health-care is gone. What do you think will be Congress’s response? Raise taxes on everyone, of course!
This reminds me of another piece of legislation here in Florida. The govt wasn’t making enough money on the toll roads so they decided to raise the price of the tolls. The problem is that now, nobody uses the toll roads because they are too expensive.
When most people stop smoking, how is the non-existent tax money supposed to pay for anything?
This legislation is counter-intuitive and it doesn’t make an ounce of sense.
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who knows?i do know that all we smokers got out of the tobacco lawsuits all the states atty gen did a decade ago,was a useless 1-800 number to call for support on quitting.cig taxes are just another backdoor tax so that politicians can say they did not raise payroll taxes.
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tax the hell out of smokes. it forces people with deteriorating health to pick up more of the cost. makes sense to me.
I don’t smoke yet I have to pay for unhealthy jackasses. How fair is that?
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this is what i said as soon as Obama was elected, they have run around like chickens with there heads cut off, changing any and everthing they can, without looking at what will happen in the long run, smoking is one alot of people smoked and payed taxes on cigaretts, the high cost has caused alot to quit, so less taxes collected, same thing with having a drink, cost to much so less taxes collected, my state passed the no smoking in a public place, wow and now they dont understand why no one is eating out or going to nightclubs anymore, they have cut there own throats, i just read where the US is transferring 200 million dollars to one of the countrys in the middle east, thats part of a 9oo million dollar pay package, where is all this money comming from, something is really wrong when ur country is on the verge of falling apart tax payers are losing there homes and they give a country 900 billion dollars, and expect us or our kids to pay that back, this country needs to clean house and start all over again
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The excessive tax went into effect on April 1st 2009.
Some smokers quit. Others slowed down. Others are now buying cigs on the black market. Some of us changed to rolling our own (much cheaper). And others are simply growing their own (I have a dozen plants in my yard). Why should I pay the excessive taxes for something that is easy to grow?
Where the government was once making tax money on me, now they aren’t. Too bad. They should have been reasonable.
The federal government and my state government taxes on cigarettes is $3 a pack combined. For a pack-a-day habit, that’s $21 a week. That doesn’t count the taxes they charge the tobacco companies that are passed down to consumers with higher prices. I would understand it more if it were for health care for smokers since we’re the ones footing the bill. If the government was so concerned about the health care costs of smokers, don’t you think they would have had at least some of this excessive tax go towards the health care costs for smokers?
They aren’t concerned about it because they pay very little for it. I have always had private health insurance. I have never been on any type of governmental health insurance. If I have a smoking related illness, my private insurance would cover it. If not, the hospital would sue me and put a lien on my home. The government does not simply step in and say, "Oh, let me pay that for you".
As far as the costs to Medicare for smoking related illnesses, by the time I am old enough to be eligible for Medicare, I will have paid into that program for 53 long years. That’s a long time to be paying into a program that I haven’t seen a dime of benefits out of. If I were to actually get lung cancer (only one in five smokers do) then I wouldn’t be collecting Medicare or SS for very long. I’m not eligible for benefits until I’m 69 and the average age of death for a smoker is 71. Oooooohh…a whole two years. If I was a non-smoker, the government would have to support me much longer at which time I’d be more likely to have a more expensive illness. Does the SS and Medicare programs have the extra bucks to support a bunch of people for an extra seven to ten years? Last I heard, it was going broke.
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