Okay, I'm opening this can of worms.......

[Uben]

It's about healthcare and taxes. Now that there is a mandate in place for people to have health insurance, what is the basis for government entities to keep collecting taxes on cigarettes? They said the taxes were to offset the medical costs associated with smoking. Since people are now required to have health insurance, and they already charge people more for being smokers, how can the government justify the continuation of collecting the taxes on cigarettes? Taxpayers will no longer be paying for the smokers medical needs because they will have medical insurance themselves that will pay for it. So, it seems, that all those sharp increases in taxes on tobacco needs to be repealed. I hadn't thought of it, till now.
It would be like taxing fuel to fix the roads, and then they remove the roads! There's nothing to be fixed!


Any thoughts?

[Oregone]

1. That all makes no sense at all

"Taxpayers will no longer be paying for the smokers medical needs because they will have medical insurance themselves that will pay for it"

Unless a smoker is in their risk pool, then they all very well do pay for it.

Ug.

[Codeine]

2. "Any thoughts?"

Yeah; smokers sure whine a lot.

[Oregone]

3. Im suffering from second-hand whine.

That shit kills

[Bluebear]

8. !

[CTyankee]

4. Because it's popular to tax "sin." Which is why they call these "sin taxes."

Same with booze. As more and more people have stopped/never started smoking due to a huge public health advocacy effort over the last 30 years, there are fewer and fewer people to oppose taxing cigarettes.

The rationale is "If you want less of something, tax it more."

[TheKentuckian]

5. Hadn't even thought of it but I never expect them to give up a revenue stream

from regular folks, its probably accounted for in the budget and they couldn't hit their number without it. Shit, that's why they changed the student loan set up because they needed that offset, otherwise they likely wouldn't have taken the morsel away from the banks.

[Touchdown]

6. You'd attract more pearl clutchers if you titled it "can of Skoal"

BTW: The professionally offended is all your going to get in this thread.:hi:

[Bluebear]

7. Well, OK then~