Posted on 04/01/2009 11:10:42 AM PDT by pissant
STAFF REPORT
It may be April Fools’ Day, but this is no joke.
A 62-cent increase in cigarette tax begins today.
President Barack Obama signed a bill in February to increase taxes on tobacco products in an effort to help expand a federal health-care program for children, according to philipmorrisusa.com. Philip Morris USA is the largest tobacco company in the U.S.
The increase, which will raise taxes on cigarettes from 39 cents per pack to $1.01 per pack, is expected to raise $32.8 billion for the State Children’s Health Insurance Program. The extra tax will fund health care for about 11 million children nationwide.
The tax on chewing tobacco will rise from 19.5 cents per pound to 50 cents per pound. Other products such as cigars and smokeless tobacco will also be affected.
(Excerpt) Read more at vindy.com ...
yup..all they’re gonna do is create a huge black market for this stuff..
What will they exorbitantly tax when it doesn't because of all the people quitting today or in the very near future?
Increase of 259% is more accurate.
No, they’ll just get them on the black market or from the Injuns.
My reply always was, “so do you want smokers to smoke more to pay for this?”
Just one more example of Obama failing to understand economics.
Possibly proportional to the increase in bounty collected on fascist politicians.
So I take it you are unhappy with this, Pissy? ;-)
Seriously, I think they should have the balls to just make tobacco illegal. As long as they keep it legal for the sole purpose of collecting tax revenue, governments are complicit with and ill effects of tobacco.
As for me, I am a non smoker but do believe smoking is a personal choice and not mine to regulate. I have feet. I can leave a smoke filled room.
the tax on loose cigarette tobacco went from $1.06 per pound to $24 per pound..I got 4 lbs. yesterday, enough for 8 cartons and that’s gonna last me quite some time..
after that, it’s trying to quit time..they’ll get nothing instead of the $1.06 they were getting..
Didn’t the tax for loose tobacco go up something like 2400% to catch all those people who started to roll their own and “cheat” the government out of its hard earned money? Time to photoshop some of those WW II victory garden posters with rows of tobacco plants to aid in the fight against tyranny.
he may misunderstand it, but here’s the problem..
SCHIP is now a gov’t program (new perceived “right”) that will fall short of revenue projections..in order to keep the program going and to raise funds, they’ll tax something else we will ALL pay for instead of just smokers..
So who’s got links to the cheap ones on the internet? Share please!
Before the tax, I was buying 7 packs of American Spirits a week.
Since they announced the tax, I spent about $250 on an 18 month supply of RYO and cut my consumption in half.
At best, they won’t see another dime from me until the Fall of 2010. That’s if I don’t start growing my own, which I plan to.
They’re going to kill tobacco revenues.
....I quit 5 years ago for health reasons....but even then I refused to pay over-the-counter-prices for smokes...I was mixing Prince Albert 50-50 with Bugler and rolling my own...you’ll see more people doing that I expect....or just go buy a couple pounds of leaf tobacco from a farmer and avoid the whole system....Americans smoked pipes that way for 300 years without the government taxing them or retailers charging them.
The damned tax and recent manufactures price increase is one of the reasons - I can not justify spending roughly $3,600.00 a year on smokes.
Prior to this April 1st tax my brother was spending $9.50 a pack for camels.
Looked into a rolling machine but still, that 25.00 tax per pound adds up...
Perhaps back to a pipe and find a Virginia farmer a smoker can barter with.
Even at 75 cents a pack, which I think was the 1982 price for a pack when I quit, I have saved $14,782 by now. With the price hikes and taxes added since then...much, much more.
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