New Hampshire House Votes to Raise Tobacco Taxes

The ten cent resolution, that one thin (not so thin) dime New Hampshire Republicans cut off the tobacco tax two years ago, expires shortly.   At the time it was proposed and passed the left was so insane with outrage that you'd have thought Republicans were selling guns to foreign drug lords across the border who were killing agents of the federal government and innocent civilians as well.  But some Democrat president was the one who'd done that so there was no moral call to war; New Hampshire Democrats were as quiet as church mice.  (Regular Church mice, the social justice Church mice are noisy sums-o-beeches--and likely protected by a stimulus grant through the EPA.) But that ten cent tax?  That was a crime against humanity.

But it was probably doomed from the start.

As a step toward another reduction it could have achieved its ultimate goal but at just ten cents it was always too thin, never allowed a long enough run.  Ten cents in this economy doesn't even cover the rising cost of fuel to get from A to A+1 let alone to B or C and back to A to make it worth the trip.   So as much as I (among others) wanted to see it succeed it likely never could.  Not because lowering the tax wouldn't work but because the hill it had to climb was too steep.

So the same Democrats who can ignore a president of their own hue whose policies kill people against their will must seize on an insufficient tax cut to justify a tax increase. There is some moral imperative to 'need' the revenue, and plucking at any heart-string to get it will suffice.  So the New Hampshire House just passed a bill to tack on another 0.20 cents a pack.

This 'revenue' will be extracted from predominantly middle and lower income people, but the left has an excuse.  They think the cost will deter teenagers from picking up the habit.  That is a dreamy notion given that most teens who smoke probably either have parents who smoke or friends who wield something more powerful than the "cost per-pack" to jump start the habit--peer pressure.  I'm surprised some left-wing Mary-Poppins has not yet found a way to define that as bullying so they could bring the full weight of the nanny-state to bear on the problem of teenage smoking.  "Off with their Butts!"

Butt they need the revenue...

I've asked repeatedly in the past, if teenagers stop smoking, when the old smokers die off, what happens to that revenue we so desperately needed in the first place?  It dies with them.  At which point the tax and spend cave dwellers pick up their spears (coated with self-righteousness) and shuffle off onto the progressive plantation to find fresh game to harvest, if there is any left; heart shaped harps in tow, as they seek revenue meat to feed to their insatiable government gods.

It is all a game to them.

In the long run it is not about the dime, or two dimes, it's about the idea.  The progressives believe first, above all things, that Government must always grow, even if it means you have to shrink.  If you do not take a stand for the dimes, you will lose them and the dollars that follow.

You are reading  "New Hampshire House Votes to Raise Tobacco Taxes"   by  Steve Mac Donald originally posted at GraniteGrok.com (Home)

Steve has been recognized as the Americans For Prosperity Blogger of the month for December 2012

Extinguishing Tobacco Revenue In Our Lifetimes

I told them.  If you want people to quit smoking, you had best not get used to the revenue from tobacco taxes.   Don't count on it for anything if you want to extinguish smoking in our lifetime.  You know, make it history?  But what did New Hampshire Democrats do when Republicans tried to back away from tobacco by lowering the tax just one thin dime?  They snapped like addicts in withdrawal.  They got the Democrat DT's and everything.

You can't cut the tobacco tax.  We're losing revenue.  We need that revenue.  I gotta have revvvaaaaannnooooo.  (Insert primal scream here.)

Their new plan?  Same as their old plan.  Raise the tax on a product they don't want around to tax.  Yeah, that will fix the wagon (actually it wont) ....until January2014 when a provision in Obama-Care delivers the coup de gras.

In January 2014 anyone who is still funding the tobacco tax with their 'habit!' is in for a surprise.  Obama Care has a provision in it that allows insurance companies to charge 50% more for individual health Insurance policies held by smokers.  That''' add thousands of dollars more per year to those people's premiums.  You think some folks will quit?

Might just be a big old beaver dam blocking the revenue stream.  But then, that was the goal.

So I think we can count on extinguishing tobacco tax revenue in our lifetimes.   At least in any form to which we've become accustomed.  And hey! maybe the insurance premium gang rape will finally be the thing that keeps kids from taking up the habit--lord knows the Democrats previous tobacco tax hike didn't have much effect.  Did I say we might want to back off that dead-end revenue stream if the goal?  I did.  So don't get too used to that money.  And while you are doing that you might want to ask about future funding for SCHIP.  Isn't the Children's Health Insurance Program heavily reliant on revenue from tobacco sales?

Say it with me. "We have to pass the bill so we can see what's in it."

You are reading  "Extinguishing Tobacco Revenue In Our Lifetimes"   by  Steve Mac Donald originally posted at GraniteGrok.com (Home)

Steve has been recognized as the Americans For Prosperity Blogger of the month for December 2012