Make that a 1$ tax on a six-pack, and the same peple will scream.
All you need to know. You work for a polling company, the "anti-smoking interests" come to you office and pay you $25,000 to conduct a poll on smoking taxes. They also casually mention they might have some future work for you, perhaps a long term contract to do polling in multiple states, more money than your company would make in a year...if they are "satisfied" with your performance.
So are you going to give them a result that says people oppose their tax?
“73 percent said they support the $1 tax hike if it will prevent 20,000 children from becoming smokers and save $1 billion in health-care costs.”
While ‘deaths from smoking’ has been overstated for decades now - basically they quote the same number from the 70’s while adult smoking has decreased significantly - studies have shown that smokers are not as big a drag on health care costs because many do die early.
And the common and trite ‘the children are our future’ idea is used for almost any tax where they can bring children into it... teen tobacco smoking has dropped significantly, many choosing other stuff - marijuana or vaping.
A big majority of teens that vape do so with nicotine-free eliquids. They just want to blow big clouds.
Washington State raised tobacco taxes in the very early part of the turn of the Century. Cigarettes are now $8.00+ per pack, the State pledged the money would be used for the health care of smokers, and for smoking cessation programs, and on childrens health care. Within 2 years the money disappeared into the general budget never to be seen again. NEVER believe that higher taxes are for the “general welfare”. They are to fill up the tax pot so politicians can build monuments to their own “genius”.
I’m so glad I don’t smoke.
I will never get cancer.
Never have a heart attack.
Never get any chronic illness!!
Yay!!
Pass the cheeseburger and hold muh beer!
“Kentucky receives $93 million in tobacco settlement money, funds boost agriculture, health outcomes...
““Since the first payment in 1999, Kentucky has collected over $2 billion under the agreement, and is on pace to collect nearly $3 billion over the first 25 years of the agreement.”
The national “Monitoring the Future” survey found that in 2017, 23.9 percent of high-school seniors reported using marijuana in the 30 days before the survey, while 9.7 percent reported smoking tobacco during that period. The survey found that 16.6 percent had used electronic cigarettes, which can be vaped with marijuana products.
Among sophomores across the nation, 15.2 percent reported using marijuana, 13.1 percent vaping and 5 percent tobacco cigarettes. Among eighth-graders, 5.5 percent reported using marijuana, 6.6 percent vaping and 1.9 percent tobacco.
Nanny State ping
Excise duties should be illegal. Taxes should be straight across the board, not just added onto certain products because some people don’t like them.
I suppose that Kentucky Burley is no longer king in Kentucky. At one time a substantial party of the economy there was tied to the annual tobacco auctions in Lexington. Cigarettes were about $3 a carton and you could buy a case of Hudepohl beer for a few cents more. (We did have some good parties at UK.)
Well, hell. I hope he finds a way to do the same for AIDS