Smoking

Another outrage (they seem to be a daily occurrence lately), the government is raising taxes on tobacco through the roof.

Now, you many not be a smoker. I’m not. Never was. But you have to watch how they’re penalizing smokers, because it’s just a dry run for what they’ll be doing to something you like in the near future. Watch as they do this with alcohol, sugar, gasoline, etc. Get ready.

On Wednesday, the federal tax will go from 39 cents per pack to $1.01. All the extra tax money is supposed to help fund the State Children’s Health Insurance Plan, or SCHIP. I’ve written about the new excise tax and SCHIP before and how it relates to cigars. On Wednesday the tax on individual cigars goes up as well, by 40 cents. It’s steep but not as bad as the original version of the SCHIP law, which called for an outrageous $10 tax per cigar. Now, that will be the tax on a box of cigars rather than an individual cigar. That hasn’t stopped the most popular cigar Web site from selling off inventory in what it’s calling “SCHIP Busters.”

The biggest losers in the new excise tax are the makers of roll-your-own tobacco.
Loose-leaf tobacco is a more fragmented industry with smaller producers than the monopolized cigarette industry. There are even a couple of family businesses still around, but most likely not for long. Wednesday happens to be April 1 and the new excise tax on roll-your-own tobacco looks an April Fool’s joke but it isn’t. The tax on RYO tobacco goes from $1.10 per pound to $24.78 per pound. That’s more than 2,100 percent! Tuesday, a sack of RYO tobacco will cost $15; Wednesday it will be $40.

Oh, “it’s for the children”. Gee, never heard that before.

If we don’t stand up to these clowns, they will continue to abuse us like a slap happy abusive boss. You going to stand for that?