5 Responses

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   Ram said on 11/6/2007 @ 11:00pm PT: [Permalink]

   I was glad to see that Moore mentioned the idiocy of using tobacco taxes to fund health.

   I am a smoker and am supporting every frigging program that a state needs money for — many of them having nothing to do with health. Why are smokers singled out as the ones who have to pay? Why not a ‘fat’ tax or a ‘driving like a maniac’ tax?

   This plan has backfired in many states where the price of cigarettes increases so much that people quit — and then there is LESS tax money than they had before they passed the increase.

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   Floridiot said on 11/7/2007 @ 12:26am PT: [Permalink]

   I’m with you RAM, why is it that when they pass a vice tax or a pollution/anti-smoking measure, the heaviest burden always falls on the poor or the middle class people?…I know for a fact this causes some to vote Republican against their own interests.
   Until they can make this a pay what you earn issue, global warming et al is only for those who can afford to pay to fix it IMO

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   Ram said on 11/7/2007 @ 10:42am PT: [Permalink]

   FL:

   There was a diary on DK last night about the health measure in Oregon that failed at the polls. The posting was offensive on many levels, but hammered the fact that it was tobacco’s fault that the measure failed.

   How about the fact that funding anything through tobacco taxes is ridiculous. There is a finite amount of money that smokers can pay for their cigarettes. When each one reaches that point, he/she either cuts down, buys cigarettes online illegally, or quits. Yet, the government sues the tobacco industry (raising the price) and continues to add tax after tax to each pack. On top of that, there are hardly any places left where any of us can actually light up. The result: the government has less money than it did before the new taxes were added.

   Yet, legislators continue to try to gain popular votes by building programs doomed to go up in smoke.

   With fewer smokers, states see less tax revenue

   Cigarette Taxes Prompt Smuggling, Critics Charge

   It is interesting in the second article that officials use the sale of the contraband cigarettes to pay for the enforcement. In other words, if the laws are meant to discourage smoking (as so many advocates claim), then why is the government selling tobacco back to the addicts?

   Now that I have posted a comment that agrees with information put out by the Heritage Foundation, I have to go scrub the slime off of myself with a brillo pad.

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   JUDGE OF JUDGES said on 11/7/2007 @ 9:34pm PT: [Permalink]

   I’m with yous guys taxing cigarettes is wrong tax of some thing else

   like cigars that way you get a more wealthy demographic.
   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

   When ya take a good look at it … the fucking bush administration policies have

   imposed a death sentence on thousands if not millions of innocent Americans.

   This is so the FILTHY RICH … GREEDY… OLD MONEY … SCUM … could get
   huge tax breaks, fucking over the poor and middle class and the economy.

   … and who will have to pay for it if we keep Scroteless dem’s in office i.e. reid pelosi . . .

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   JUDGE OF JUDGES said on 11/7/2007 @ 9:39pm PT: [Permalink]

   P.S. I Love Michael Moore & I’m not larry craig (R-Pervert). . .