Who thinks that the taxes on cigarettes have gone too far?

Question

I don't want to hear any ignorant answers about your opinions on smokers either. I just want to know why it's okay to tax one specific group of people billions of dollars. A bunch of people will claim that smokers cost the government billions of dollars, but I assure you smokers pay in way more taxes than any government settlements or health care costs. In SD it would take 60 six packs of beer to generate the tax revenue from one carton of cigarettes. How fair is that? And now SD wants to raise the sales tax from $.53 to $1.53. We already pay more taxes on cigarettes than it costs to manufacture them.

Alright, since so many of you are cool with raising the taxes because we smoke and we should have to pay more money, let's raise the property taxes more than 200% and throw in a "fat tax" for all the obese people raising health care costs. Is that fair?

Answer 1

ok

Answer 2

I don't know what others have written, but I agree with you 100%. People will claim anything that they think sounds good, (and if they're polititions, they will use negative propaganda to convince the unfortunate number of our population that is so suseptable to it.)

Cigarette tax here in Oklahoma was recently raised .80 per pack. A pack of premium brand cigarettes is now nearly $4.00, when the manufacture cost is.....well I don't know exactly, but I do know that those companies in Europe who sell on the Internet and ship from the Duty Free Zone in Switzerland can sell the same thing for under $2.00/pack, and they wouldn't be in business if they weren't making a profit.

And funny as it may sound, really, what's wrong with focusing the taxation elsewhere. The obese people don't need to be that way. They take up more room, and indeed do raise the cost of health care. What about taxing them a penny for each pound that they put on unnecessarily?

Answer 3

I'd bet my left nut that every single person who agrees with the taxation of cigarettes, is a non- smoker.

That being said, if those non-smokers really want to be fair with taxation, then they should also tax the Hell out of wine and champaign(not just beer and whiskey), all fast food should cost around 75 dollars for a meal and parents of criminals should be taxed around 50% of their income, in addition to normal taxes.

Oh wait, that would be logical and anti-smoking people have no concept of logic.

It's a fact that obesity costs the government a butt load more than any other factor, aside from criminals and programs that encourage people to sit on their fat butts and get paid to do nothing other than complain about how they should be getting more than they are to sit on their butts.

Answer 4

The taxes on cigarettes is outrages. I think they should leave or lower the taxes. It is not right for them to say that smokers are causing more health problems then the obese, the alcoholics, or anyone else. Does the governmet think increasing tobacco taxes going to make people stop smoking to decrease health cost. Smokers are an easy target so we are the ones who will suffer.

Answer 5

First off I would like to say I am a smoker and have been for many years. I think that the taxes on cigs are just fine with me. I live in Arizona and we have one of the highest taxes on smokes then any other state. I think you should pay a price if you want to poluute the air. But the real question is what are they really doing with all that money they get from us smokers. Whoohoo a couple of smoke free add campaigns aint gonna cut it. BTW people arent going to stop smoking just cuz a commercial tells them not to.

Answer 6

Amen! There have been all kinds of government bureaus set up from tobacco tax revenue. Multiple Headstart programs, Tobacco awareness. Better Breathing, program after program. In our state, when the money first rolled in, much of it was diverted to certain politicians and activists pet programs that didn't involve smoking at all.
Now, here's where the good part comes in. The taxes rose and rose, public smoking all but banished...and sales dropped and dropped. Soon there won't be enough tobacco taxes to pay for all the bureaucracies that were created. Who foots the bill? All of us, and that is exactly what happens when one segment of society is singled out time after time for abusive specific taxes.

You are dead on! Everyone will pay, almost poetic justice except it hits us all!

Answer 7

To H*** with the price of cigs, and I'm a smoker, I don't need those to live, quite the opposite, in fact, but I do need affordable gas. Because of that downed pipeline field, gas just shot up to 4 bucks a gallon here. And I know other parts of the country were already paying that. Anyway, to answer your question, cigs are so expensive because smokers are driving the cost of healthcare WAY up. Someone has to pay for this. So, our taxes do. And if you think about how many people without healthy ins. smoke. It's all about the health care issues.

Answer 8

Yeah, I know. I guess we should start a sin tax on junk food, as obesity is such a problem in our country. The logic that smokers cost tax payers and insurance companies (hello! that's why you pay PREMIUMS! insurance companies aren't going broke!) and should therefore be taxed more can just as easily apply to people who are overweight. So let's start requiring exercise. Let's start taxing fast food and junk food! How about you pay $8.00 for a hamburger? Woo hoo! Oh, and you know what, it's just plain stupid that people can have risky hobbies like sky diving, bungee cord jumping, riding motorcycles, skiing...I'm sure that costs a lot of money when they get hurt. We shouldn't allow that, either. And you know...soda isn't good for you. All that caffeine...and it tends to be linked with obesity. Let's get rid of that too. The only problem is, once everyone stops drinking, smoking, doing risky hobbies, etc., then who will we tax? Hmmm...maybe people who have kids? Think of the money that costs tax payers and insurance companies!

Answer 9

They have gone way too far. I can't help laughing at the people who say they want the taxes to remain high so people will stop smoking. Yeah, right, and where are the taxes going to come from when smokers quit? Non-smokers want to punish smokers, but they don't really want smokers to quit. They want them to keep paying the high taxes, so none of their own luxuries get taxed higher.

Answer 10

In the UK the tax on a packet of twenty cigarettes is the equivalent of about 6 US$. They are very expensive. Smokers die younger and are actually saving the economy on expensive old age health care.

Answer 11

This is not an ignorant answer but I believe that there is not enough taxes on cigarettes. These products are killing people. They are a legal drug that is far more fatal than any drug I know. My mother has been diagnosed with COPD and will probably die from it because of cigarettes. She started smoking before people were told that they were dangerous. I think that tax should be at least $4.00 for cigarettes. Then maybe some people would stop or be prevented from even starting and at least some lives could be saved.