Quote:
Originally Posted by RougeUnderoos
Despite your insistence, this isn't a tax increase on any specific group of people or income bracket.
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And despite your outright ignorance, or just sheer blind support(really can't figure out which, considering I used to judge you as a straight shooter)....the fact is that lower class people smoke more than upper class people do, so no matter how you want to defend what Obama has done, this WILL hit the lower class more.
That is a FACT.
I still remember how IFF argued in the election thread how Obama's tax plan would BENEFIT the lower/middle class. I even saw his point, especially when looking at what McCain was proposing. Granted, there was no way anyone knew he would increase the the tax rates on tobacco by 156% to fund his insane spending programs, but the idea was that Obama would level more taxes against those people earning more than $250,000 dollars, whom Obama deemed as rich. Of course, I disagree with the idea of taxing the rich more, or simply taxing anyone MORE....as I think money should be put back into the hands of the consumer.
But, if I had to CHOOSE, obviously one would support taxing the rich, because they can deal with it without breaking the bank. The lower class should be left alone as much as possible, and Obama seemed to agree during the campaign. And yet, 2 months into his presidency, he breaks those campaign promises, and imposes a tax that would greatly hamper a lot of lower class folks.
If you want to reduce smoking, educate the people.....don't tax the hell out of their hard-earned money, and expect them to make good decisions. There is a reason they smoke, and as much as they should just 'quit smoking'....like IFF, someone who obviously isn't a smoker, and has probably never dealt with an addiction to nicotine, or a lower class lifestyle....thinks they should.....it takes a lot more than just 'quitting.'
People should also quit eating fast food 3 times a day, or living a highly inactive lifestyle, or eating junk food, or consuming insane amounts of sugar, refined carbs, transfats, etc, etc, but they don't. And taxing those 'foods' isn't going to stop them from indulging. It'll just hurt those people around them that they have to support.
People shouldn't drink and drive either....should we start taxing alcohol like crazy to prevent more people from 'buying' it, hoping that it prohobits at least 5% of drinking and driving accidents?
The tobacco tax is nothing more than a means to an end....the end being Obama's insane spending projects, and its quite apparent that he is willing to tax the rich, or the poor to get that money.
Because the group of people who are going to suffer from the increase in tobacco taxes, ARE the poor....not the rich, or even the middle class.
Poor people smoke more than rich people, of that there is no doubt.
Look beyond the wording. Look at the people who this is going to affect. That is my problem.