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| Posted: 01 Apr 2009 19:58 |
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source: http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D979POSG0&show_article=1
WASHINGTON (AP) - One of President Barack Obama's campaign pledges on taxes went up in puffs of smoke Wednesday.
The largest increase in tobacco taxes took effect despite Obama's promise not to raise taxes of any kind on families earning under $250,000 or individuals under $200,000.
This is one tax that disproportionately affects the poor, who are more likely to smoke than the rich.
To be sure, Obama's tax promises in last year's campaign were most often made in the context of income taxes. Not always.
"I can make a firm pledge," he said in Dover, N.H., on Sept. 12. "Under my plan, no family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase. Not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your taxes."
He repeatedly vowed "you will not see any of your taxes increase one single dime."
Now in office, Obama, who stopped smoking but has admitted he slips now and then, signed a law raising the tobacco tax nearly 62 cents on a pack of cigarettes, to $1.01. Other tobacco products saw similarly steep increases.
__________________Lucas McCain the Rifleman: A man doesn't run from a fight, Mark...but that doesn't mean you should go running *to* one, either.
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| Posted: 01 Apr 2009 20:40 |
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Here's the problem with the media. This reporter created their own bridge to shuttle people across. Because the poor are more likely to smoke than the rich(this is debatable of course), this is a tax on the poor. The other bridge is the misleading use of his quote- 'not any of your taxes'. He didn't tax people directly, he increased an existing tax on a vice-it isn't something any individual should consider as 'their taxes'.
On a connected note, smokes are going up to around 9$ a pack in NYC. I'm really glad I quit them. How about you?
__________________But the backdrops peel and the sets give way and the cast get eaten by the play, there's a murderer at the matinee, there are dead men in the aisles
And the patrons and the actors too are uncertain if the show is through and with sidelong looks await their cue, but the frozen mask just smiles
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| Posted: 02 Apr 2009 14:42 |
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Yeah, I'm glad I don't smoke anymore, but it kind of seems hypocritical for the government to say smokes are bad so we are going to profit even more from them.
I hate big government but you know there really ought to be a law that stops cigarette makers from making cigs so addictive and deadly. From those commercials it would appear they put rat poison in them. How can they get away with that?
__________________Lucas McCain the Rifleman: A man doesn't run from a fight, Mark...but that doesn't mean you should go running *to* one, either.
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| Posted: 02 Apr 2009 21:03 |
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Quote:
but it kind of seems hypocritical for the government to say smokes are bad so we are going to profit even more from them.
That's obviously not their intended message. This is an old article, but it points out how smoking costs taxpayers 10 billion through Medicare alone, way back in 2007.
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2007/11/tobacco_cost.html
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there really ought to be a law
For someone who supposedly wants less spending, less taxes, and a smaller government, you need to never speak or write these words ever again. Ever. For any reason.
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From those commercials it would appear they put rat poison in them.
If you only ate the cigarette, the trace quantity of arsenic wouldn't do any harm. Funny thing is, according to what I'm reading here, it doesn't wind up in the mix as part of the recipe, but as a byproduct of the pesticides used in farming the tobacco in the first place. Look at this list, you'll be real glad you quit in a sec:
http://quitsmoking.about.com/od/chemicalsinsmoke/a/chemicalshub.htm
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How can they get away with that?
Lobbyists and special interest groups in Washington, marketing targeted toward lower income areas similar to alcohol and a lack of ingredients on the side are a good few places to start looking.
__________________But the backdrops peel and the sets give way and the cast get eaten by the play, there's a murderer at the matinee, there are dead men in the aisles
And the patrons and the actors too are uncertain if the show is through and with sidelong looks await their cue, but the frozen mask just smiles
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| Posted: 03 Apr 2009 16:39 |
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Quote:
For any reason. Well gee whiz if they were putting rat poison in cereal I would think that would be illegal. So how is it ok to put it in cigarettes?
__________________Lucas McCain the Rifleman: A man doesn't run from a fight, Mark...but that doesn't mean you should go running *to* one, either.
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| Posted: 03 Apr 2009 19:49 |
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They're not putting rat poison in the cigarettes. Trace amounts of arsenic wind up in there from the insecticides used on the tobacco-but I had already posted this.
__________________But the backdrops peel and the sets give way and the cast get eaten by the play, there's a murderer at the matinee, there are dead men in the aisles
And the patrons and the actors too are uncertain if the show is through and with sidelong looks await their cue, but the frozen mask just smiles
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