Tobacco lobby underwriting part of the conservative anti-tax rally tomorrow in Georgia.

[kpete]

Source: Think Progress

Tobacco lobby underwriting part of the conservative anti-tax rally tomorrow in Georgia.

Tomorrow, conservative groups Americans for Prosperity (AFP) and Americans for Tax Reform are organizing a rally at the Georgia State Capitol to protest the state’s upcoming budget. The protest, like many recent anti-tax protests, is cloaked in an ideological veneer of fiscal conservatism and limited government. The invitation presents the rally, where Grover Norquist is speaking, as an opportunity to “cut spending and encourage economic growth.” But the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Jim Galloway notes that the fine print at the bottom of the invitation e-mail says the list serv was paid for “by Altria Clint Services on behalf of Philip Morris USA”:



Notably, part of the new budget is a proposal to levy a dollar-a-pack cigarette tax. Both groups involved in the protest have a long history of astroturfing for corporations to build popular support for their policies. AFP is led by Tim Phillips, a longtime astroturf lobbyist who has used evangelical and conservative groups to lobby on behalf of corporations like Enron and the gambling industry. AFP was founded and continues to be funded by oil billionaire David Koch, who has aggressively used his group to oppose clean energy reforms that might cut into his business.

Read more: http://thinkprogress.org/2010/03/08/afp-norquist-tobacco/

[onethatcares]

1. damn dollar a pack isn't near enough to pay for all the

victims of tobacco addiction. I guess they want to hold phillip morris/rjr/and the rest of the growers forever harmless in any lawsuits so they cloak it in anti tax rhetoric.

[Abq_Sarah]

2. The money doesn't go to pay

People who smoke and get sick. Tobacco taxes are a way to tax a despised minority and they are anything but progressive. The money isn't earmarked for health services, it goes directly into the general fund.

[onethatcares]

4. oh, I understand that.

what they should do though, is direct the tax to the health care of smokers and those about to suffer from smoking related diseases.

I was a smoker for a long time, 43 years there about, so far I've been lucky, but who knows the future?

[obxhead]

5. That dollar a pack, and far more in many states, does not come

out of the tobacco companies pocket, it comes out of the pockets of the victims you speak of. Furthermore, none of those tax dollars is put into treatment for tobacco related illnesses. It is flat out disgusting that they will continue to spike these taxes by huge amounts, knowing full well the victims of the tax will continue to pay because of a horrible addiction.

I'm quit smoking 6 weeks ago and I can tell you it's the hardest addiction I've fought in my life. Years ago we had all those huge lawsuits against the tobacco companies that opened the door to all these taxes. They were done under the guise of helping to pay for programs to help smokers quit. So far all I've seen the millions of dollars do is line lawyers pockets and create a few websites. Hardly the kind of help an addict with the desire to quit needs.

[toopers]

8. All those smokers were forced to smoke.

EOM

[MisterP]

3. how many libertarian characters and arguments AREN'T corporate puppets? nt

[McCamy Taylor]

6. Tobacco knows if the feds pay all health care bills, tobacco will be outlaws ASAP.

Since cigarette smoking is the number one preventable cause of death and disablity in the country.

[McCamy Taylor]

7. Oh, and Norquist lobbies for tobacco, alcohol, gambling all of which increase profits

when people are out of work and desperate.

Grover Norquist designed our current recession so that the so called "sin industries" can profit from our misery.