New increase of $2.00 Tax on ONE Pack of Cigs? - Taxes on Chips, Sodas and Alcohol - Congress Consid

Originally posted by jfj123
reply to post by questioningall

 

Personally, I wouldn't mind a cigarette tax, alcohol tax, and a beer tax. Beyond that, I wouldn't support it because at that point, you could tax anything that might be even slightly unhealthy.
Soda- too much sugar
Diet soda-too much altered sugar.
gatorade-too much sugar even though it's great for replenishing electolytes.
Iced Tea-again too much sugar
coffee-too acidic which can cause stomach problems. Too much caffeine which can increase blood pressure.
Water in plastic bottles-chemicals leach from the plastic.
Air ???
Where do you stop????

They need to draw a reasonable line and just STOP. Taxing everything is the equivalent of simply increasing the sales tax.

"Where do you stop????"

Good question.
Depends on who you ask.
There was once a group of like minded people who made a stand at tea......
So some might say you stop at taxing tea.

I could care less about the excuses/reasons for taxing things.
Its simply just to do it.
They want money,and there ripping it out of the backsides of every american here.

Well looks like its time to order some tobacco seeds and buy a tobacco cutter, and a dryer. time to put the ol' still together and start making some shine! Time to start sending messages to those parasites in washington that they will understand.

They didn't get the hint with the tea bags that everyone sent them. i don't know what kind of message they will understand though

Originally posted by Seasick
Is it illegal to grow your own tobacco? I'm genuinely curious, I'm a non-smoker myself, but I vaguely recall something about growing tobacco for personal use either being legal or illegal in certian quantities. Hmmm, guess I need to do some reading.

All the other stuff people you can get around it. Ditch the pop habit and drink water. Ditch the chips and eat fruit. If you like to drink (like I do) plant a vine or three and learn grape cultivation and how to make wine. Buy grain and distill your own spirits. Homebrew your own hooch. If enough people start doing this kind of thing, the government will get the picture.

Nope not illegal to grow your own tobacco - I have already done the research on it, in fact I purchased seeds online a couple of months ago. There are tobacco forums on the net where you can read about how to grow and harvest it yourself. It takes about 1 1/2 years of drying though. I have tons of links I have kept from my research. Tobacco plants from what I have read, makes very pretty landscaping too, you just have to harvest the leaves at the correct time etc.

There are NO good taxes.

I'm not so sure that cig. really cost us all that much in terms of health care.
My mom, for instance, got lung cancer and died. She was 62.

She didn't use a lot of health care services and she didn't draw any social security, b/c she just DIED.

Now, my grandma, she quit smoking at 50. She lived to 90 and was in and out of the hospital for 30 years, she had hernia, cateract, kidney surgery...then a series of strokes, was in ICU a long time - then her last year spent in a nursing home.

I'm thinking tobacco probably saves us a lot of money, truth be known. Some people want to live forever, some people just want to live happy doing what they want to do and get on out of the way.

Seems almost like we could get to a 'class' system in which taxes are so high that certain income levels are basically denied certain things. Oh, that purple dye, it is ONLY for the royals.

Oh, sorry, no it isn't illegal to grow tobacco.
We grow it. It's kinda hard to get started, from my experience. Tiny little seeds...take a good 6 weeks to look like anything.
They tax the crap out of the papers though, so you'd best smoke from a pipe.

reply to post by hadriana


Glad you let me know that - it has been weeks since I put mine in soil to sprout and they are just little bitty things right now. The seeds are unbelievable small too - as you said.

reply to post by Black_Fox


Its simple they are broke get it they have no more money. Do you think that if we bring home our armies from around the world and took care of good old USA that we might all of a sudden be out of debt and win back the respect of the rest of the world heck I might even respect my goverment again.

Where will it all end with tax this tax that .

If it doesn't end we all will have to carry a few quarters around the house just so we can pay the toilet tax on our own toilets just like at the rail station the quarter machine on the bathroom door !

reply to post by Bombeni


Maybe I shouldn't be saying this but in my neighborhood cigarettes are already on the blackmarket.

I can't believe this is happening.

Obama is so busy trying to bring this country down to its knee's that I don't know how he has time to go to Las Vegas.

This man even does his dirty deeds on Sunday!

Am I the only who sees this as a good thing? The government does need to step in on this and regulate. We have proven ourselves as a nation of fatasses that we can't do it ourselves. We are near the top or # 1 in terms of being the least physically fit country in the world...all of these things they want to tax heavily are major contributing factors...not only that, but all of these things are all at the top of contributing to the most deaths in the U.S. each year. What does all that add up too? A world of health problems that my tax dollars have and will continue to pay for in the near future, simply because the majority of the people in this country refuse to take care of themselves. I'm all for this because it comes down to taxing wants instead of needs. No one needs cigarettes, chips, sodas whatever.

reply to post by edgecrusher2199

I'm all for this because it comes down to taxing wants instead of needs. No one needs cigarettes, chips, sodas whatever.

So why just stop there?

Nor do we need computers, internet, television, automobiles, entertainment.

Let's go back to the stone age.

All we need is water and vegetables.

If you want these "fatasses" to get fit...then maybe we shouldn't cater to them either.

Who is the government to decide how I dictate my life?

Arguing that you have to pay taxes for this stuff...only to justify having MORE taxes is hypocritical.

So, here we go with prohibition part 3. Guess i'll break out the Thompson and my derby hat...

Don't think for a second that they will stop with booze, smokes and junk food. Nationalized health care is a carrot on a stick and America is just running toward it blindly.

This is a power grab. When was the last time you got something from the government with no strings attached? This is just a scheme to get you to willingly hand over your freedom. They know that the Constitution does not afford them the power to intrude into your lives that they are seeking, so they need your consent. They need the sanction of the victim.


TA

This is a load of rubbish.

The biggest sins aren't even taxed at all.
Drugs,Prostitution (and the Porn industry could be taxed some more too.)
Both are multi billion dollar industries.

I'm sick of being made to feel like a pariah because I enjoy a cigarette and an occasional drink.

Why does no one barrel in on how much illicit drug abuse costs the health system every year. It would be 10x more than cigarettes and alcohol both of which are legal products and also which the consumers already are heavily taxed and are paying towards the health cost through tax.

It costs not only the health care system, but law enforcement, times that emergency workers have to take off work in stress leave and a whole pile of other costs to society. YET THEY PAY NOTHING TOWARDS THE COSTS THROUGH TAX.

The governments of the world should forget about smokes, alcohol and junk food which are just small pleasure in life and go after the big fish that are costing us all heaps, if they are fair dinkum.

Originally posted by questioningall

Okay - I have a GREAT idea - they want money from taxes - they are looking under every nook and crany to tax all of us on products - here is some ideas:


1 - Tax all oil companies - an excessive income tax of net profits - when it is over 4 billion dollars in 3 months time of PROFIT!

2 - Tax the Banks on all the money they have taken - but have not loaned out and not kept the credit flowing!

3 - Tax the credit card companies on their excessive interest rates they are now charging the public!

Those are just a few ideas!

We are going to be taxed so heavily on everything we purchase - we will be giving the big corporations and govt. any excess dollars we have been able to keep previously!

Why didn't you run for president? You would have had my vote!!!

I'm not big on boring Ol' American history but...

Wasn't this country founded by immigrants who didn't want to pay taxes?

Is anyone really surprised by this? Higher taxes are inevitable, for EVERYONE, no matter how much money you make (or don't make). Higher taxes on EVERYTHING is inevitable for the near future.

Why? Because of the ridiculous spending by our government. Obama's budget is 1.6 TRILLION dollars, and they have to get that money some how.

Should have read the damn "stimulus" bill, no? Or outright said NO to begin with. Because of the government's idiocy, WE have to pay.

Just wait and see, this is only the tip of the iceberg - higher taxes on food, paying more for gas at the pump, sky rocketing energy costs. "Tax cuts for the middle class" huh - it'll be the middle class getting the shaft worse than anyone.

[edit on 13-5-2009 by Manwin]

[edit on 13-5-2009 by Manwin]

I see a lot of members here saying things like "I don't smoke, so it won't effect me. I couldn't care less...."

IMO, that's not the point. It shouldn't matter whether or not you smoke, drink alcohol or soft drinks, or whatever. What if it was bottled water? Tofu? Hamburger meat? Cigs have already been giving their enormous taxes, now more? Why not just go ahead and put RJR out of business, and quit trying to profit from an obviously addicting substance? "Smoking is very dangerous and addicting kids! So we won't make it illegal, just wait until you're hooked so we can take all your money!"

If something (legal) is bad for you, then you pay the price with your health when you buy it. If you think we don't already pay enough for health care, then go to my grandfather's grave and ask him why his hefty life savings (hundreds of thousands) dwindled away when he had to start paying his doctor bills for lung cancer, which by the way, he never smoked a cig in his life!!!!

Hazardous? OK let's increase taxes on cars, plane tickets, cell phones, kitchen knives, homes with staircases, a tax to be on the school football team, tanning beds, rubbing alcohol, grills, fourwheelers, and every single forzen tv dinner out there. You can not use that argument and then pick in choose what you think is the worst products to buy. There are far more diseases and health conditions that effect health care other than ones that are (potentially) smoke-related.

Since when did it become the Govt responsibility to say what's bad for us? Do you even know all the crap that's in the food we eat today?

So, let's hike up inflation, stalemate wages, increase the cost of living, force some (like me) to work a second job, make more and more laws, spy on people as much as we can, make it almost impossible for people to get a loan, and now, lets just go ahead and tax the S**T out of most of the enjoyable substances people legally have access to. People will get over it, because 'you gotta pay to play'......

Seriously, I think they are running out of things to tax. Maybe you GOVT MORONS should think about CUTTING YOUR SPENDING like the rest of us have instead of just finding more areas of American life to exploit and rasie capital for more ridiculous bailouts ( not that that's where the money will go, but you get the idea...).

Let's all just go ahead and life the Utopian life (demolition man anybody?) they are slowly trying to make a reality. Seriously, if I had the money, I would pack my crap and leave this middle-school of a country. But then again, where could I go that wouldn't be just like this one? I'm done trying to voice my opinion to our leaders, their care for our wishes went out the window back with the first bailout......

I roll my own cigarettes. Last month the tax went up to $27.00 a lb. on tobacco. I paid $16lb. in March and now it's $43lb. With rolling paper it's still only $2.10 a pack so I expect another tax soon. No empathy by the anti-smokers? Don't worry, your gonna howl when Beer, Twinkies, chocolate and coffee are soon taxed with an healthy America tax of 50%.

Originally posted by questioningall
Wow, the tax of a pack of Cigarettes went up 60 cents on April 1st, but I guess that is not enough for the govt. - they are now considering a $2.00 tax on ONE pack of cigarettes, besides taxing "junk food"!

link to article:
www.politico.com...

If you make big bucks — or enjoy alcohol, cigarettes and Coke — the government might hit you up to pay for fixing the nation’s health care system.

On Tuesday, the Senate Finance Committee peeked into vending machines and liquor stores, company payrolls and health savings accounts, looking for a mix of tax increases and spending cuts as a way to pay for a health overhaul — which could cost more than $1.5 trillion over 10 years.

Experts thought the big debate might be public plan vs. no public plan. But that may well pale in comparison to the difficulty of settling on a way to finance health care reform.

“I wish there were a number of painless options,” Robert Greenstein, executive director of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, wrote in his prepared testimony. “There aren’t.”

There appeared to be a bubble of support among the experts for taxing bad behavior, including a $2 tax on a pack of cigarettes and a higher excise tax on alcohol.

But soda and sugary drinks found a friend Tuesday in Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), the ranking member on the Finance Committee.

Unbelievable - the whole "no taxes on those making under $250,000 a year - sure no "FED income tax" - but what they are doing is going to be taxing everyone completely to where - no one will have any money left for themselves to save!

You can't be serious? I don't smoke or drink soda. I won't be paying anything.


I do have the occasional beer when out to dinner. Looks like I'll be paying just a little more for the LUXURY of being able to drink a beer.


As far as soda goes, it's already 175x the cost to make it. It will be 177.5x the cost of it with the tax applied.



I really don't understand people like you.

There is already a black market started on cigarettes in South Carolina. A local farmer planted 125 acres of tobacco. To not be viewed as a business he only barters for other goods. My parents (whom do smoke) are raising weeder geese for him in exchange for their supply.

Bartering in this somewhat rural area is making a huge comeback. Some days you can get more from a trade than with the dollars. We are exchanging eggs for milk already with a local farmer. Being all gay and all you know we love ornamental flowers, bushes etc. We have gotten better stock than the greenhouses through trade so, they are off our list this year. We have also started a group to trade with locally for seed and plants.

So anyway it plays out though that there is a downside to all products so everything might eventually be taxed like this as an excuse. I see this coming very soon. Even our small local town has been hinting at raising prices on all bottled drinks and all packaged foods because they are going to have to expand the landfill.

This system in place is corrupt. The only way besides armed conflict is to find ways to just avoid it. Stop supporting the system in all ways possible. Learn to make your own wine or whatever else you love. I like dandelion wine myself.