Dems push Walmart to give up cigarette sales

The Hill ^ | February 15, 2014 | Ian Swanson

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

A group of Democrats are urging Walmart to follow CVS Caremark and discontinue selling tobacco products.

The seven Democrats said Walmart, the nation’s biggest retailer, is also the nation’s biggest seller of cigarettes.

“We recognize the legality of selling and profiting from tobacco products; however, Walmart’s position as the nation’s largest retailer of any kind puts your company in a unique position to contribute to the health and well-being of all Americans<” the Democrats said in a letter to the company. The letter’s signatories included Sen. Dick Durbin (Ill.), the number two Democrat in the Senate.

The letter stats that three quarters of adult smokers want to quit, and quotes former Walmart CEO Lee Scott as saying a “tremendous number” of Walmart shoppers smoke.

The letter was also signed by Sens. Tom Harkin (Iowa), Barbara Boxer (Calif.), John Rockefeller (W.Va.), Sheldon Whitehouse (R.I.), Sherrod Brown (Ohio) and Richard Blumenthal (Conn.).

[Yardstick]

Love how they backhandedly scold Walmart for “profiting” from cigarettes.

[txrefugee]

Strange....where are the anti-smoking zealots when it’s marijuana smoke they’re smelling? That smoke not only kills lungs but brains.

[MagnoliaB]

Just like the VMT tax they keep talking about after they realized, “Duh”, how are we going to make up the loss of gas tax from these fuel efficient cars.

[MagnoliaB]

I grew up on a tobacco farm and then helping neighbors in tobacco as an adult. Quitting smoking (I’m a non-smoker now) has always been hard for me. I have always loved the way cured tobacco smells, especially in a barn right before you take it out.
You can easily grow, cure and roll your own. The government is idiotic, as usual.

[trebb]

Wal Mart charges enough that most other places are preferable purchase points. I remember when Military Commissaries were one of the biggest cigarette outlets.

[Rodamala]

What pisses me off is I am not allowed to deduct taxes already paid on my pack a day habit... so eff em, I just write the whole thing off as a medical expense.

[Dutch Boy]

Democrats work from emotion, not logic.

[Mears]

“The shorter life-span of cigarette smokers should be seen as a benefit to the Leftist cigarette haters”.

---

Every week a friend and I,both smokers,catch a movie and go to lunch.

She’s 80,I’m 81, and we’re well aware that we are going to DIE YOUNG but we still choose to smoke.

We just don’t give a damn.

.

[Madame Dufarge]

You two reckless kids have got to cut out this defiance. Maybe when you grow up you'll see the error of your ways.

We know it's never been about smoking. It's always been about testing how much purportedly free people will tolerate the government's controlling the minutiae of everyday life.

I don't give a damn either.

[Still Thinking]

But lefties despise Walmart anyway, so why do something you don't want to do trying to gain their approval? It would only last a day and they'd go back to harping about how you're screwing your employees.

Don't be a Bush (get co-opted by the liberal agenda, only to still be scorned as some kind of uber-conservstive.)

[unixfox]

I want ALL of those in Congress to submit to a urine test. ANYBODY that tests positive for alcohol or drugs gets fired IMMEDIATELY!

Then we issue a background check, mental illness check, and an IRS probe to boot!

F**K em all!

[SunkenCiv]

Thank you, Demwits! This is a gift of a bludgeon for us to use on them every day of the 2014 election campaign.

Thanks Tolerance Sucks Rocks.

[justiceseeker93]

“We recognize the legality of selling and profiting from tobacco products; however, Walmart’s position as the nation’s largest retailer of any kind puts your company in a unique position to contribute to the health and well-being of all Americans<” the Democrats said in a letter to the company.

Like most proposals from the Left, there could be unmentioned bad consequences from "suggestions" such as this. And WalMart and the Washington 'Rats have had a number of skirmishes in recent years, fueled by WalMart's non-union labor policy.

If cigarettes especially are not readily available in retail stores at a somewhat reasonable price, there is an increased possibility for violence as addicted smokers get restless with undue difficulty in satisfying their craving. There could also an expansion of a black market, controlled by organized crime and other criminal gangs.

And you can be sure that these 'Rats won't be too happy when their tobacco tax revenues dry up under such circumstances.

The "suggestions" from the Democrats, talking about promoting health, ignore the fact that WalMart and other retail stores are also selling smoking cessation aids, and that their smoker customers have an opportunity to buy those instead of tobacco.

[jonrick46]

The illicit trafficking of tobacco is a multibillion-dollar business today, fueling organized crime and corruption, robbing governments of needed tax money, and lining the back pockets of Democrat politicians. To increase the profits of the business, you need to restrict the sales of tobacco products in the free market. These DemonRATs are no dummies.

[digger48]

By the end of the decade, I predict Walmart will have Medical Clinics in the Superstores.

Whether they are Obamacare approved or not.

[GeronL]

they already havr clincs in some of them

[digger48]

didn’t know that. Thanks.

Haven’t seen one yet.

[GeronL]

I guess they are technically leasing space, I just Googled “Wal-Mart Clinics”. I guess they are “independent” non-emergency cinics

[Starstruck]

I find myself breathing through my nose and scowling because just the aroma reminds me of what I’m missing...makes me crave one.

I sometimes get behind and "draft" a smoker to get the second hand smoke. Funny thing is the smell of smoke on someone's clothes is disgusting.

[Popman]

That was excellent...