Put That In Your Pipe
President Obama has signed a law that raises the tax on a pack of cigarettes from about 39 cents to $1.01. That is one major increase.
Is this how it's gonna be? Whenever they need to raise more money, just hike the tobacco tax? I have enough trouble with new taxes as it is, but shouldn't we all share in the pain, rather than having government take it out on politically convenient victims?
posted by LAGuy @ 12:33 AM
5 Comments:
Now only if we could have all shared in the benefit of the prior administration's tax cuts too.
Sin taxes have been embraced by all ideologies in good times and bad to both discourage perceived bad behavior and raise revenue.
Once again, you seem to offer advice designed to rile up the masses.
The lower brackets got a bigger tax cut than the higher brackets, so Bush only made income tax more progressive. I agree with you, though, that cutting income taxes to make them flatter would have been amazing.
Social engineering through taxation has not only not been embraced by all ideologies, but has been regularly attacked through the years.
If taxing cigarettes actually caused a lot of people to quit, one might defend it on that grounds. (I actually wouldn't, but I recognize that such an argument would have its merits.)
But in fact, I don't think there is any evidence that taxing cigarettes does cut down on smoking. What it does, however, is tax the poor. It's not a progressive tax, or even a flat tax (the same percentage for everyone) -- it's a totally regressive tax. The rich person who smokes three packs a day won't be hurt by the $3.03 tax. The poor person working for minimum wage loses half an hour of wages every day -- even on days that they don't work.
The fact that the Left supports this tax proves that they hate smokers more than they love the poor.
I don't think it proves they hate smokers more than they love the poor. I think it just proves they love raising taxes more than they love the poor.
*grin*
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