Smokers feeling abused as federal tax hike hits

reply to post by sos37


well....
when they have the universal healthcare, then they can gripe about my smoking, till then, well, I ain't costing you or anyone else any money, so LEAVE ME ALONE, and leave my money alone!!!

heck, you gripe about all the money I spend on cigarettes and what I could do with it....but I will tell you something, for the amount of money that has been swiped out of my family's budget in the form of taxes to "help the poor" for the past 20 years....
I BET I COULD HAVE PAID FOR AT LEAST ONE OF MY KID'S COLLEGE EDUCATION!

i swear to god, the first time I hear my local government saying they have to raise property taxes because of their medicaid, medicare, employees healthcare, blah, blah.....the danged bank can have their house back, and then well, what the heck, the payment has adjusted to a rediculous level anyways....let the danged bank pay for the healthcare....
I ain't!!!

god, what is it now, 40% of the kids or something like that is born out of wedlock.....daddies don't want to pay child support, mommies don't want to work so, well, in about a year, out pops another one....
gee, wonder what that is doing to the gov't's budget...
I know what it has done to ours throughout the years!!!

Originally posted by sos37
You haven't seen anything yet when the government is controlling the pursestrings on your healthcare - they'll start telling you what you can and cannot eat, what you can and cannot drink, what you can and cannot wear because THEY are now footing the bill for your health. Don't you get it? The government owns you at that point.

Obviously without universal healthcare they are already doing so. Or did you forget where, when and to how much extent people are allowed to smoke now? Thanks to smoking nazis like you. Good job.

I'd be an ex-smoker too if I made 4 mil a year.
Just saying. . .
And the upper class educating the poor?
I have two college degrees, and I’m still poor. Since when did intelligence have anything to do with a person’s pocket book?
Just saying. . .
If I had a good job with benefits, I would not be smoking. I would have access to help. I would not need to self-medicate. Have you looked into the concept of self-medicating to deal with stress? Self-medication is not the answer, and it is not healthy. I’d like help. I’d want a good job. I’ve worked hard on my career. Do you think everyone with an education magically gets a good paying job so that he or she can afford the high horse some of you are riding around on?

I agree with you that the gov controlled health care is not the greatest idea. I'd rather have a good paying job, so I can pay for my own care. However, I was just thinking how if they are going to pick on smokers and tax the sh" out of them, then it would be nice if they offered help to those who cannot afford it on their own. I'm probably an idealist.

[edit on 1-4-2009 by Pamie]

[edit on 1-4-2009 by Pamie]

They should have put a huge sin tax on sugar. How many more people are affected by diabetes and obesity than smoking related illness?

So-called "sin" taxes have always been popular with politicians. They can raise huge amounts of revenue by taxing things that are "bad" at extortionate rates and claiming that the proceeds will be spent towards health care. In actual fact, the proceeds fill the coffers of the general fund while demographic data shows that the monetary burdens fall disproportionately on the backs of those least able to afford it.

Politicians just brush it off as a case of "We're trying to encourage and give an additional incentive to people to quit smoking/drinking by making it too expensive". Bull. People with these habits are not going to quit. The government is just milking these people for all that they're worth.

Most of them were Obama supporters.

How long before they are so squeezed that they finally wake up and see that they were taken for fools? Or are they so brainwashed that they will never wake up?

If you're in the U.S.A we are having a tea party in every state to protest taxes. April 15th.
www.youtube.com...

[edit on 1-4-2009 by Night Star]

LET ME START BY SAYING I AM NOT A SMOKER. it has never bothered me if someone around me was.
what i dont understand,is that when you buy cigs,you have to pay sales tax on the entire purchase,right?
from what i understand,they actually cost about $.50,and the rest is tax,right?
well if the rest is tax,shouldn't the sales tax only be on the original price of the cigarettes?
if you think about it,they are taxing the tax!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

someone should sue. this can't be legal.
is there another product that is pretaxed and then taxed again on the full sales price,besides alcohol?

ISN'T THAT A TAX TAX?


I DONT SMOKE,I BURST DIRECLY INTO FLAMES

[edit on 1-4-2009 by Spectre0o0]

First of all, I want to say that I LOVE Valhalls' quote: "I don't pay taxes to buy lies".

Other than that, I think I have already adequately vented my disgust at the government's position and my attitude regarding taxation and regulation of tobacco and alcohol by the federal government.

Nothing more to say, really. I have already said enough and others have said more.

great another thing the government takes away from us....it's bad enough that they are wipeing there a$$ with the constitution ugh this is really making me really pi$$ed













4

What the hell are they going to tax next? Illegal drugs

Originally posted by delta33
What the hell are they going to tax next? Illegal drugs

Actually many states started taxing illegal drugs long ago, here's an example from my state:

www.norml.com...

Most states have had this on the books since around 1937, little more background on it here:

en.wikipedia.org...


Back on the track of the OP, most of what I feel has already been posted. The idea of yet another tax on what many people use to get temporary relief of stress during the times of economic hardship seems to be absolute stupidity. Mind you I am not saying it is a good thing to bury your stress or problems with chemicals (be it alcohol, tobacco, etc), but for many people these are their escape from burdens they carry.

Too many people today don't even see that freedoms are being stripped away from them left and right. Granted it's not being made illegal, but it is now in a position where the lower classes and poor of society cannot afford it. And in effect you are removing their "escape", by placing it out of financial reach.

I can find one positive in all of this, a smoker is much more complacent after a few drags to things they don't like. Perhaps this is the push those people need to get their butts off the couch and out in the streets to voice their opinion that they are sick and tired of it all.

Before the tax increase I bought 3 pounds of roll your own tobacco, so they won't be getting any tax revenue from me for about the next 3 or 4 months.
The tax on roll your own tobacco just increased from about $1 per pound up to $24 per pound, which is a massive increase.
3 pounds of tobacco and 6 cartons of tubes cost me about $50 last week, the current price is $40 per pound with the new tax included. (It was $11.50 per pound before)
So now I spend about 20 minutes a day making my own cigs and those poor kids who's parents make upto $80,000 per year and can now get SCHIP coverage are going to go without my funding til my stash runs out.
Meanwhile, I've been without health insurance for the past 7 years or more, and haven't been to a doctor or dentist in much longer than that. My last major injury, tearing up my ankle, was treated at home by making my own cast out of duct tape over a sock. I'm pretty sure this new tax qualifies as Taxation Without Representation, especially in my case as I've never produced any offspring.

I would very much like to see a bill introduced that prohibits taxing any item at a rate higher than the production cost of that item.

Hopefully there will be a drop in tax revenue after this increase due to black market activity and decreased usage, and they will reconsider these oppressive tax rates, like Canada had to do a few years back.

eb

Obama was in the office two days when he threw in this new tax on cigarettees. Non smokers can shut the hell up, and be glad us smokers are now supporting Obama's new health plan for children. Ppl believe anything that is spoodfed them in regard to cancer... If you google SV-40 you will learn the real reason for this epidemic...The truth the government doesn't want you to know.

reply to post by skeptic1


Where the hell are you from???

It's like $60 a carton here in Michigan



[edit on 2-4-2009 by nick112]

[edit on 2-4-2009 by nick112]

This is really a bad time to be applying a tax like this. The Government thinks that smoker will continue to smoke and feed the tax. I smoke, and I’m quitting because of the high cost. I guess the Government better re-think there revenue take on this tax it will be less than half that’s for sure. So you really think all this tax is going to children’s health care. I think not. Some politician will raid that for something else and the fed-bank will end up with the cigarette sin tax money in the end.
I won’t be surprised if the tobacco companies will be allowed to start advertising again. The Government is going to have to find a way to keep milking the Tobacco cash cow somehow; with all the smokers quitting. I’m sure the drug cartels will be adding cartons of smokes to their inventory lists soon. I bet they get better sales than crack. Look for the Cig wars coming to a border near you soon.
And just to think Obama thought I was going to spend this money I saved from the cigarettes at Best Buy, maybe a trip to Las Vegas. I think not…
I think I’ll buy me a that new 45 caliber with a pallet of ammo with the money I will be saving. Heck I think I’ll also buy a nice to rifle with a night vision scope to go with it. Maybe just, maybe.. I can swing just enough for that nice looking Mossberg Shotgun too.

Support the black market - screw the tax whores.

Sounds to me like smuggling tobacco just might become more lucritive than illegal narcotics - and you wont have to worry about the long prison sentences (yet) if you get caught.

I don't smoke and never have, but I have a girlfirend who smokes. Yes, that means I'll be paying the taxes if not in smokes I buy for her, but in having to pay a higher share for other things as she'll have less money because of the extra taxes.

If you really think about it we'll all be paying more for things because of this tax even if we don't smoke, because the money has got to come from somewhere - so everyones going to raise their rates for everything in order to keep paying for their habbit.

New Taxes are basically a redistribution of wealth - it is money being taken by someone that used to go to someone else.

That means money that would be spent on other things will be redistributed and some industry or some products are going to sell less because the government is taking a larger share of people spending power. The idea that you can just magically create taxes to pay for things and it wont effect other things is moot.

[edit on 2-4-2009 by verylowfrequency]

reply to post by Spectre0o0


I agree with you, someone should sue, big time. Maybe all the smokers should start a class action lawsuit.

I've been saying for years that they're illegally taxing cigarettes, in Chicago we pay state tax, county tax, & city tax that's triple taxation (IMO) and isn't that illegal ? So is this new tax a federal tax, if so that's four taxes we have to pay. I couldn't believe it today when i was out i passed five different stores where the sign said the cigarettes were $9.55 a pack!!! Heck i'm gonna start growin my own tobacco.

reply to post by larphillips


I'm sorry but I'm going to have to disagree with you and tell you that you are a very ignorant person. First of all, whether you are smoking pot, salvia, tobacco, hookah fruit or tobacco or any thing else in the entire world, you are putting yourself at risk for at least cancer because of the carbon monoxide gas that is released from the smoke, and yes second hand smoke is worse than first hand smoke because not only does it have carbon monoxide gas from the smoke, but it also has carbon dioxide gas from the smoke being exhaled from the lungs. If you're going to criticize people you may want to study on the topic first so you can avoid looking like a complete idiot. You're just another person making up excuses for the wrongful things you do. Get over yourself.

-Risingsun

reply to post by chise61


Once again, not trying to scrutinize you or other smokers but you guys need to realize one important thing. Smoking tobacco is not only unhealthy to the first hand user, but also other who are around the first hand user. Like many other things in the world, tobacco smoke is a pollutant. Does it make it okay to do these things? No. But cutting them out one by one will keep millions of people from committing these acts that put others and the world at risk. I feel sorry for those of you who must smoke to feel a sense of well-being and comfort, maybe one day you will be enlightened and find a healthier way of survival and happiness.

-Risingsun