Cigarettes To Cost $10/Pack In New York, Government Worries About Too Few People Smoking

• February 9, 2009

It’s fitting, given the ethical problems his administration is already having, that the first law Obama would sign into existence as the President of this country would be a shameful fraud like the CHIP entitlement expansion. That bill funds a massive expansion of government-provided health care with a draconian increase in tobacco taxes that may soon have New Yorkers, as an example, paying as much as $10/pack for cigarettes.

NEW YORK, Feb. 8 (UPI) — The fact that a pack of cigarettes will soon cost more than $10 in New York could push some people quit smoking, a health official says.
Michael Seilback, a member of the American Lung Association of the state of New York, said if the new 62-cent federal tax added to a single pack of cigarettes encourages smokers to quit, it could potentially lower smoking-related healthcare costs and deaths, the New York Post reported Sunday.
The federal tax will be applied to all cigarette sales in New York following the recent passage of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program law.

While the idea of smokers quitting their habit may seem like a good thing to some (I maintain that using the tax code to manipulate the behavior of citizens has no place in a free society), what’s problematic is that if people quit smoking tobacco taxes are never going to fund the CHIP expansion.
Which the liberals knew, of course. That’s why the CHIP bill is such a fraud. Anybody with common sense knew that taxing tobacco use into extinction is not a sustainable way to fund government-provided health care. The taxes are too high, and the tax base is too small. But the liberals did it anyway, because the point wasn’t ever to have tobacco users fund the bill inevitably. The point was just to get the foot of government health care expansion in the door.
Once they had the CHIP expansion in place they knew full well that it would never go away, even if tax revenues from tobacco users did. So while we Americans were sold on the idea of getting government-provided health care at the expense of a not-so-sympathetic demographic like smokers the reality is that we’re all going to end up paying for CHIP as soon as the smokers finally give up their freedom to smoke in the face of blatant economic prohibition.
It was a bait-and-switch from the get-go.
Anyone who thinks they can get free stuff from the government should be disabused of that notion by this example. There is no such thing as a free lunch. We all pay, ultimately, for everything we get.

Tags: Asshats, Cultural Marxism, Domestic Issues, Nanny State, Politics

http://Array dfwpike

Democrats are wanting to fund programs, like CHIP, from tax revenues on cigarettes while, at the same time, they’re implementing smoking bans and making it harder for people to smoke.

Are liberals stupid, or what?
Neiman

It will go Black Market!
http://www.dartemis.net/blog/ sayanything-42

Shigata ga nai.
http://insanereindeer.blogspot.com/ Kenny

that the first law Obama would sign into existence as the President of this country would be a shameful fraud like the CHIP entitlement expansion.

This wasn’t his first bill signed. FYI.
http://norseberserker.blogspot.com/ Rugby Reader

Shigata ga nai.

So, are you saying Japanese-Americans are not really Americans, and that they should be shipped off to detention facilities based on their race alone?

We did that to American citizens during WWII. The American government committed an egregious crime against Americans when we sent Japanese-Americans to “relocation centers.”

Not really sure how this is relevant to the posted topic…
http://www.poorschmuck.net/ John D

Don’t worry about the Indians. The State and Federal government might not have enough money to fund what they want. But they have enough to have State Police and BATF agents watching for people leaving the reservations with smokes.

In Washington State they’ve been known to set up roadblocks and check cars. How they get away with that I don’t know.
http://www.dartemis.net/blog/ sayanything-42

Is there any end to little dog’s bad habits?
http://www.dartemis.net/blog/ sayanything-42

Joe Kennedy certainly would have.
http://www.dartemis.net/blog/ sayanything-42

Rugby Reader,

Source and attribution?
http://www.dartemis.net/blog/ sayanything-42

r108,

The difference between armed robbery and taxation lies solely in their legal status.
http://www.dartemis.net/blog/ sayanything-42

And the individual most responsible for that policy of interment (which was only done in the continental United States, not in the territory of Hawaii) was the then Governor of California and future Supreme Court Justice Earl Warren.
http://www.dartemis.net/blog/ sayanything-42

What was Earl Warren’s political affiliation?

I forget…
robert108

Taxes should only be used to pay for the legitimate costs of govt, in providing needed services to the taxpayers. Anything more is theft.
robert108

We did that to American citizens during WWII. The American government committed an egregious crime against Americans when we sent Japanese-Americans to “relocation centers.”

You lie; the Japanese were interned as a security measure, not “due to their race alone”; you see, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and killed Americans. The only crime was not returning the possessions of the innocent internees after the war, but not the internment itself.
rocketmc2000

I’m wondering when the good people are gonna have enough of this taxing us little people into poverty!! enough of taxing cigarettes and beer.i wonder why we look at our spending in new york lottery that was suppose to save our schools and all i’ve seen is cut backs.think about it.where all that gambling money going i think it going right into the governors pork barrels fund? also this tax on cigs now is a crime with alot of people out of work and trying to make ends meet now the state wants to raise cigs on us ? think about that.the state wants us middle class people to stay without having the opportunities to get ahead.we of new york state should stand against this type of taxation without representation !!!!!!!!!! i’ve had enough of this
http://norseberserker.blogspot.com/ Rugby Reader

Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. Not Japanese-AMERICANS.
docdave

Hey you guys are getting away from the subject. /nothing new there. Whoever said that cigarettes will be black market items is correct. In New York the cigs will probable come from Canada; should be easy to slip over the border there. Can’t rule out the Indans making a bundle too since rezs typically do not fall under state or federal law.
http://insanereindeer.blogspot.com/ Kenny

You lie; the Japanese were interned as a security measure, not “due to their race alone”; you see, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and killed Americans. The only crime was not returning the possessions of the innocent internees after the war, but not the internment itself.

Nothing wrong with jailing innocent people for years upon years? Just another brick in the wall of the fascist FDR’s wall of shame.
http://www.dartemis.net/blog/ sayanything-42

Your knowledge of colloquial Japanese needs help. Shigata ga nai.
http://norseberserker.blogspot.com/ Rugby Reader

I maintain that using the tax code to manipulate the behavior of citizens has no place in a free society

I couldn’t agree with you more!
http://www.dartemis.net/blog/ sayanything-42

No, there is no end to little dog’s bad habits…
http://norseberserker.blogspot.com/ Rugby Reader

Rugby Reader,

Source and attribution?

Rodney Graves,

What are you asking? I know you’re not asking me to cite a quote from the original post above, are you? I’m quoting from the post. Rob is the source. I know you read that, so what are you asking?
WOOFX

I was in NYC, cigarettes were $7-8,
and there were guys on the street selling black market
smokes.
WOOFX

Smugglers were well represented among the founding fathers.

$20 profit?/carton, would John Hancock make the trip?
WOOFX

I don’t smoke, but being a smoke smuggler, well do the math.
Kahoepc

TANSTAFFL! “There Ain’t No Such Think as a F$%$% FREE Lunch”

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