There is a new federal tax going into effect April 1, 2009 that will tax all tobacco products.

$6.50 per carton for cigarettes.
$10.00 per carton tax for small cigars.
And a substantial tax on loose tobacco if you want to roll your own cigarettes.
10 cents per can of dip, chew, smokeless tobacco.

This new tax is supposedly to pay for the children who don't have health insurance. This bill was started back in Nov by Bush.

I was floored when I went into a tobacco shop on Friday to find that the tax bill had been passed and not a peep was said in the newspapers or other media.

Isn't this going to be the equivalent of double taxation if we have the health care plan jammed down our throats?

This means that the cost of a carton of name brand cigarettes will cost more than $50 per carton out the door (where I live in Ohio). Are they trying to make us stop smoking tobacco or what? Or are they "pushing" us into going for the smokeless tobacco instead?

Did they also tax the alcohol to fund the health care for children? Probably not.

No they are merely planning on you paying more for the smokes

This is just one of the many new taxes I would suspect that we will see.

I remember when people said when they get to 50 cents a pack I will stop, then a dollar a pack,
They will merely do without other things to smoke,

Hey Twinkie... right now it's $66 for a carton in NJ. This will put it over $70.

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Originally Posted by LisaB4657

Hey Twinkie....right now it's $66 for a carton in NJ. This will put it over $70.

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Yikes!! I quit over 25 years ago. Want to see my new Rolls Royce I got with all the dough I saved up? LOL! (It's only a replica).

Correction, make that 30 years ago when I quit.

What will the price of a carton be in California then? I remember that cigarettes cost an arm and a leg out there the same as they did in New York and the North East.

Lots of people buy their smokes where they buy their gasoline. I hear some of our brilliant lawmakers want to boost the federal tax on gasoline and diesel also.
There is just no end to the pain this priviliged clall will put the rest of us through is there?

I heard they were raising the price and the money never goes where they say it will. I agree with Fr_Chuck this stimulus is going to create the need for many new taxes.

Well, it's clear choice to tax something people are addicted to. Smoking has had such negative press in the last couple of decades, that placing a big old tax on them won't ruffle to many feathers.

That said, this countries will to tax has gotten about as out of hand as the deficit itself.

I don't smoke, never have, but this is an unfair blow to people who do.

But if they don't tax tobacco products, they will just tax the hell out of something else people have to have, maybe gas, maybe bread.

Perhaps it's time to throw a bunch of tobacco into Boston Harbor? While we are there, lets throw in our W2's, barrels of oil, automobiles, and about every other thing overtaxes.

It's funny, I'm sitting here trying to figure out what tax dollars fund. I quote the county in saying our tax dollars do not go to schools, I quote a spokesperson from VDOT who says our state tax dollars don't go to roads...

Where the hell do they go?

As for me, I'm off to leave bags of dog poo on the congressmans front step.

In this case, the subject of the tax is cigarettes; but the Obama crowd is pleased to tax 'the economy' into the ground.

Local sales taxes on tobacco has caused people to become criminals and in some cases has supported terrorist cell operations in this country . For all those who think hootch and other illegal drugs can be legalized and controlled by taxation to reduce crime, they should see what happens when a product like tobacco gets taxed to control consumption.

Increased cigarette taxes reduce legal sales, but not total sales (legal and illegal sales combined). Increased taxes lead to increased smuggling, resulting in less revenue for governments and undermining taxation as an effective health policy to curb tobacco consumption.

It is a big concern already in Europe where bootlegging and organized crime are involved in the smuggling of tobacco products... and it is a growing issue in this country where differences in State taxes becomes an issue.

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The traffickers purchase a large volume of cigarettes in states where the tax is low, such as Virginia and North Carolina, transport them up Interstate 95 to states such as Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey and then sell them at a discount without paying the higher cigarette taxes in those states.
With huge profits -- and low penalties for arrest and conviction -- illicit cigarette trafficking now has begun to rival drug trafficking as a funding choice for terrorist groups, said William Billingslea, an ATF senior intelligence analyst who has studied the issue extensively.

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The first large-scale cigarette trafficking case tied to terrorism was prosecuted in North Carolina in 2002. A federal jury in Charlotte convicted Mohamad Hammoud, 28, of violating a ban on providing material support to terrorist groups by funneling profits from a multimillion-dollar cigarette-smuggling operation to Hezbollah.
The jury also found Hammoud, whom prosecutors described as the leader of a terrorist cell, and his brother guilty of cigarette smuggling, racketeering and money laundering. The two men, natives of Lebanon, were accused of smuggling at least $7.9 million worth of cigarettes out of North Carolina and selling them in Michigan. Hammoud was sentenced to 155 years in prison.

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Cigarette Smuggling Linked to Terrorism (washingtonpost.com)

Moonshine is a prime example of tomder's post.

But as far as VA goes, your quote might soon be old news, word is Kaine has a whole new string of state tobacco taxes in store.

Hello twink:

Remember your buddy, the dufus in chief?? Well, he reduced taxes, started a very expensive war or TWO, and then he told us to go shopping...

Guess what?? The bill is coming due. What?? Don't conservatives believe in paying your bills??

excon

But is it fair to tax just smokers? I hate taxes as much as the next person, but we're all in this together, doesn't seem right to put the debt on the weight of smokers.

Reduced spending seems like the solution to me.

However, in hindsight, my dad, smoker for 40 years is finally trying to quit, on account of these new taxes. And he smoked like a frieght train, one after the other day and night. So I can only imagine this to be good for his health.

But then we must ask another question:
What if everyone quits smoking? Or enough quit to the point where the tax just isn't making all that much money? Then, from where does the money come from? Because let me tell you, if my dad can quit, ANYBODY can, he is the most stubborn man I know!

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Originally Posted by andrewc24301

But is it fair to tax just smokers? Then, from where does the money come from?

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Hello again, andrew:

Don't you worry about that. He's going to tax rich people to make up the difference.

excon

Attached

Could just as easily be a swastika on his cap; one socialist is about as good as another.

Hello again, andrew:

TAXES do spread the wealth around. TAXES have ALWAYS spread the wealth around. That's exactly WHY we tax, and WHY we always will. TAXES are socialism. Obama's taxes aren't any more socialistic than Ronnie Raygun's were.

That's just so.

There is the view that the Obama is soaking the rich...

But, of course, the rich got UN SOAKED during the last 30 or so years, and they got wayyyyy richer... Then the dufus in chief gave them even more... It's instructive to remember who HE said was HIS constituency: "the haves... and the have mores".

The middle class, on the other hand, got wayyyyy poorer over the same amount of years.

All Obama is going to do, is put things back to where they were when things were working pretty good for America.

excon

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Originally Posted by excon

Hello again, andrew:


All Obama is going to do, is put things back to where they were when things were working pretty good for America.

excon

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Let's review this in 12 months and see if things are working good by that time.

Hey, how about this? De criminalize marijuana and slap a tax on it equal to a pack of cigaretts. That should bring in a TON of money. Ex might have to spend one of those little gold coins.:)

Cigs in MA is $6.80/pack.

I heard that MA is raising the gas tax to .19
Cents...

I would much rather have cigs cost more than gas.

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Originally Posted by George_1950

Could just as easily be a swastika on his cap;

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Hello again, George:

This is where you guys go off the deep end. I understand your USSR comparison. But, your Nazi thing is just plain wrong. The Nazi's didn't like black people. They weren't Aryan enough. They murdered the ones they found.

To NOT know this, is ignorant. To know this, and still compare a black man to a Nazi, is offensive. But, I'm sure you thought comparing him to a monkey was just fine too.

George - your true colors are showing, and they're not pretty.

excon

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Originally Posted by excon

Hello again, George:

This is where you guys go off the deep end. I understand your USSR comparison. But, your Nazi thing is just plain wrong. The Nazi's didn't like black people. They weren't Aryan enough. They murdered the ones they found.

To NOT know this, is ignorant. To know this, and still compare a black man to a Nazi, is offensive. But, I'm sure you thought comparing him to a monkey was just fine too.

George - your true colors are showing, and they're not pretty.

excon

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Nazism is/was a mere offshoot of socialism, and you can take your pick. I reject all of it.

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Originally Posted by excon

Hello twink:

Remember your buddy, the dufus in chief??? Well, he reduced taxes, started a very expensive war or TWO, and then he told us to go shopping....

Guess what??? The bill is coming due. What??? Don't conservatives believe in paying your bills???

excon

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Seriously! We've got to pay sometime.