Posted on 07/17/2007 7:15:30 AM PDT by tlb
As part of an increase in tobacco taxes designed to pay for children's health insurance, the nickel-per-cigar tax that has ruled the industry could rise to as much as $10 per cigar.
"I'm not sure in the history of man, since our forefathers founded the country in 1776, that there's ever been a tax increase of 20,000 percent," said Newman, who runs the Tampa business founded by grandfather Julius Caesar Newman. "They had the Boston Tea Party for less than this."
The Democrat controlled Congress has sought an extra $35-billion to $50-billion for the state children's health insurance program. The program distributes payments to the states to help buy coverage for kids not poor enough for Medicaid.
Cigarettes, which accounted for more than 95 percent of tobacco tax collections last year, are the main focus of the bill. Federal taxes on a pack would jump from 39 cents to $1.
But the legislation has dragged cigars along for the ride.
Under the proposed bill, taxes on "large cigars," a category that includes all but the tiny cigars sold in 20 packs like cigarettes, would rise to 53 percent.
A U.S. Senate version of the bill under consideration today in the Finance Committee sets the maximum tax per cigar at $10.
(Excerpt) Read more at sptimes.com ...
ping
You can bet Ted Kennedy won’t have to pay the tax on his cigars.
Is this a FL tax or a national tax?
The government does not care about whether you smoke or not. This is a ploy to get their hands on more money by demonizing a group that most people don’t like. I don’t smoke myself, but I refuse to play into their scheme to get even more money when they already can’t manage what they’re taking now.
And Bill Clinton. ;)
When in the course of human events...
ping
So what happens if everyone who smokes cigarettes decides to quit ?
This is enouigh to make me rethink my choices or buy them from the indian reservations.
National.
There’s a Monica joke in there somewhere, but I’m not going to touch it.
Sometimes you just have to wonder if they’re not intentionally trying to start an insurrection.
Oh you silly Dems. Now I’ll just have to buy all my cigars in Cabo instead of just the Cubans.
Dirt bags all!
I don’t agree with this but the headline is misleading. To me it suggests that EVERY cigar will have a $10 tax. But that’s not what the story says.
‘s OK.
I buy my Cubans at the British PX on Ramstein Air Base. Germans also sell them at a good price.
Has anyone caught on to the tax scam yet? You ain’t seen nothin yet.
Socialism will rapidly kill the country, one penny at a time.
These bastards in Congress really have their priorities straight, don't they? Our borders are overrun with freeloaders, we face a daily threat of attack from a transnational terrorist movement, Federal spending is out of control..... and all our elected representative can seem to do is dream up new ways of separating us from our hard-earned wages in order to purchase the loyalty of people who live off the taxpayers. And when they're not doing that, they are trying to figure out how to get our guns away from us.
I know that I am not alone when I say that having always imagined myself to be an even-tempered, moderate and reasonable person, I am very quickly becoming radicalized by the continuing assault on my freedom and security. No matter what, they're not getting my cigars or my guns, however I must obtain them. So, Congress: stick that in your pipe and smoke it. Or better yet, just stick it.
Dream on. Too few even know where that comes from, let alone what it means.
liberalism is a mental disorder
Are these not "cigar-ettes"? A distinction without a difference.
Can’t get at Clinton that way - his cigars last nearly forever. Something about his special humidors.
If the train of abuses and usurpations (Crimmigration, gun control, confiscatory taxation, eminent domain abuse etc.) continues eventually the evils will become unsufferable and the people will take notice.
We can thank our government run and liberal dominated public "education" system for that. Gee, what a coincidence -- NOT!
Guess I’ll be placing a big, big order with JRCigars in the very near future!
What is this “children's health care” the article mentions.
Welfare?
It wouldn’t hurt Rush. He can afford it. I would quit smoking them though. Of course, when I’m overseas in a saner country, which is often, I could indulge.
Yep. See my post #31.
I smoked a K. Hansotia Silver Edition Symphony last evening...A very nice 'gar.
FRegards,
Hardly - he will be one of the few left who can afford to smoke 'em.
Or here....http://www.cigarsinternational.com/
They’re counting on the majority to hate smokers worse than they hate taxes.
Can’t get at Clinton that way - his cigars last nearly forever. Something about his special humidors humid whores....
Nanny State Ping
to paraphrase freud:
Sometimes a theft is just a theft.
Amazing that anyone would think that cigar demand is this inelastic. A tax rise of this size would do nothing nothing less than simply destroy the industry. It will reduce cigar sales to the level of moonshine sales and make those sales entirely untaxed while encouraging “criminal” behavior.
that said, this is probably a stalking horse for a “compromise solution” of a dollar or so tax on cigars.
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Rush might just hop in that G IV of his, and zip down to Dominica or Central America for a smoking session, but even Rush would not be too happy with a socialist tax such as this.
I never could stand cigar smoke, anyway.
;)
I’m sure he wouldn’t be happy and not only because he hates taxes. A tax that high on a cigar will put a lot of cigar makers out of business and the choice and quality will decline overall.
What an absolute crock of socialist dung. Not poor enough?????
Thanks for the ping!
I love my Arturo Fuente Gran Reservas.
Looks like I’ll have to order them from out of California, this state is full of anti-smoking nazis.
That is exactly what will happen. Confiscatory taxes, and other forms of prohibition, lead to black markets. The "Churlins" won't benefit from this, but criminals will. And who knows... Perhaps the next Senator from Massachusetts will be the son of a tobacco smuggler.
Wiseguy :)
This is ridiculous. And there aren’t enough people affected by this to really get outraged about yet another outrageous tax.
This government is out of control. Given Congress’ low poll numbers, it will be interesting to see how much turnover there will be in 2008. Very little, I expect. The sheep are asleep.
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