SCHIP passes the House

[tsmckenney]

For me Mick, it's not about the 40cents....it's about the trend.

When will it end?

Well, I do agree with all of you. My acceptance of this 40 cent tax is derived of the fear I had that our industry was about to get dusted. While I do agree with Alan, wholeheartedly, there is still something here that we can all be happy about.

Cigarettes and cigars were not held under the same umbrella, at least not entirely. They almost were, but with some effort we achieved a small victory. Someone somewhere said, "Yeah, this ain't right."

Just trying to see some positives. I mean, brothers, cigarettes are doomed. You can only sell people poison for so long... It's funny they only tax that sh.t, instead of regulating how they produce them.

 

[BigJake6904]

For me Mick, it's not about the 40cents....it's about the trend.

When will it end?

That's exactly the point. .40 won't affect me much, that's another $150-$200 a year.
This about sums it up:

"If you give a mouse a cookie....

...it'll ask for a glass of milk."

As many have mentioned, it's not the tax itself, but the principle behind it.

 

[Macion Grey]

I hope things don't get too bad over there that you have to shift to purchasing from tax free locations like a lot of us Cuban cigar smokers do. That would kill off so many B&Ms, and that is not cool.

 

[sonuvabum]

Using an uncertain funding source for this program is irresponsible. It also targets a specific group of people to fund something that has little or nothing to do with them. The fact that it allows a family of 4 making over $66,000 annually to be placed on the taxpayer dime for their health care ($88,000 in some states) is offensive to many people. This has been draped in the cloak of "for the children", but it allows adults to be enrolled as well.

If it's as important as those who wrote it and voted for it claim, they should use taxes from the general fund.

There's also the potential for many smaller companies to eliminate their health care coverage since their employees can be taken care of by the government.

I'm all for making sure poor kids have health care, but this is the wrong way to do it.

That's about as succinct as I have seen it put.

Well said Alan.

 

[597]

I guess I'm going to have to stock up on cigars before the additional tax. Pretty soon it will be cheaper to smoke cigars than cigarettes the way the tax on cigarettes are moving (up .62 fed tax after the bill)

 

[bfreebern]

Guess overseas purchases will increase.

 

[okiesmoke]

The problem is now that you've got the House, Senate, and White House aligned, legislators and lobbyists are either guests at the table or they're on the menu. So in a slam dunk bill like this, you're right. It was a victory to keep cigarettes and cigars under different umbrellas.

That's about as much political crap as I can sling. Good thing it's 70 outside here today. I'm going to torch a great smoke while I'm still allowed to in my own back yard!