How Much is the Government Making Off of Tobacco?

Hey ATS, over the past few weeks I read a few threads concerning the new tobacco taxes that are going to become effecting here soon for some states.

I often wondered just how much revenue these taxes were bringing in and I found a great article breaking it down pretty well. Take a look.

It’s no secret that the government taxes our spending– in fact, sales tax is one of the main ways that the government brings in money. But there are a number of other items that have their own additional taxes imposed, whether at the state or federal level. And, when it comes to cigarettes, the consumer pays both. Would it be right to call this a tax on one’s vice, or sin? While we don’t claim to be any moral authority, the figures and statistics are quite interesting.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/26d5921c6799.jpg[/atsimg]

There's a guy that has a blog "News from 1930" where he posts headlines from the same day in 1930 (1931 now, he started this last year).

Can't remember the date but one day last year he had an article posted showing various federal income sources... tobacco tax collection exceeded income tax collections back then.