I hope American's are watching and listening to what Congress is doing to help our new president install his new fascist state. Not quite socialist as there will be a fa sad of a free market system when he is done. More taxation on everyone and everything to fuel his wealth redistribution scheme. This is just the first one and taxes one small group of our economy excessively. Yea, smoking is bad for you but most are poorer people and they are being forced to pay not only for themselves but for our youth now as well. Obama wants to collect 33 Billion dollars a year from Smokers in the U.S. alone. This is now such an overburdening tax on these people it enshure's that they will die poor and never be able to escape this addiction buy taking all of their available money.
Smoker's trying to quit now don't even have hot lines to call for help quitting as the states have run out of funds for those programs because they used it for other than anti-smoking campaigns as directed the tobacco settlement agreement signed by the states to receive the settlement money. This is wrong and we know it. But will any one stop it? I doubt it! This is what will embolden the tax collector's to take even more in other area's of the economy. Get ready for more taxes and restriction on your wages and benefits. They are going to tax insurance programs as well as regulate them for our senior citizens, there by reducing the level of care provided as an end result. Things are not looking good for us with congress passing into law new powers for bureaucrats without even putting limits on those powers. This is very dangerous for Free American's. Read the excerpts from Ricardo's article on the A.P.
By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR, AP
Sun Mar 29, 7:52 AM EDT
Excerpts from his story :Smokers face a hit as tobacco taxes spike.
The single largest federal tobacco tax increase ever.
The major cigarette makers raised prices a couple of weeks ago, partly to offset any drop in profits once the per-pack tax climbs from 39 cents to $1.01.
Medical groups see a tax increase right in the middle of a recession as a great incentive to help persuade smokers to quit.
Tobacco taxes are soaring to finance a major expansion of health insurance for children. President Obama signed that health initiative soon after taking office.
The tax increase is only the first move in a recharged anti-smoking campaign. Congress also is considering legislation to empower the Food and Drug Administration to regulate tobacco. That could lead to reformulated cigarettes. Obama, who has agonized over his own cigarette habit, said he would sign such a bill.
About one in five adults in the United States smokes cigarettes. That's a gradually dwindling share, though it isn't shrinking fast enough for public health advocates.
Philip Morris USA, the largest tobacco company and maker of Marlboro, is forecasting a drop, but spokesman Bill Phelps said he cannot predict how big. Philip Morris raised Marlboro prices by 71 cents a pack early this month, and prices on smaller brands by 81 cents a pack. Other major companies followed suit. The pricing moves raised eyebrows. "That's nothing more than greed," said Kevin Altman, an industry consultant who advises small tobacco companies. "They weren't required to charge that until April 1. They are just putting that into their pockets."
Responded Phelps: "We raised our prices in direct response to the federal excise tax increase, and people who are upset about that should find out how their member of Congress voted, and contact him or her."
Some policy analysts have questioned the wisdom of boosting tobacco taxes to finance health care for children. They argue that the fate of such a broad program should not depend on revenues derived from a minority of the adult population, many of whom have low incomes and are hooked on a habit. The tobacco industry is also warning that the steep increase will lead to tax evasion through old-fashioned smuggling or by Internet purchase from abroad.
Standing outside a Washington department store, attorney Margaret Webster, 42, puffed on a Marlboro Ultra Light and lamented the fact that the government is reaching deeper into her pocketbook.
"I don't think we (smokers) like it," she said. "But I've heard so many people say they were going to quit when the price went up ... and they're still smoking."
