Congress has announced that it wants to add an additional $.61 tax to every pack of cigarettes sold in the United States. They intend to use the revenue from this federal tax to fund the State Children's Health Insurance Program.
I used to smoke. I started smoking when I was in middle school. I quit smoking in February 2007. I've been around smokers all my life - it's part of the reason I started smoking at such a young age.
Why did I quit smoking? Not out of any particular concern for my health. I didn't really ever think I smoked enough to harm my health - 1 pack a week doesn't exactly a chain smoker make.
I quit smoking because the State of Texas added an enormous amount of tax at the beginning of 2007 onto each pack of cigarettes, making it so a carton of cigarettes went from about $24 to over $40. Simply put, I was too cheap to continue to justify buying cigarettes.
If this bill goes through and an additional tax is added to every pack of cigarettes sold in the United States, I'm wondering how many other people will be priced out of smoking. And would that necessarily be a bad thing? After all, we're all told, repeatedly, that smoking is bad for us. But...yet...so many people do it.
Here's the quandary I face on this issue, however, when evaluating the tax proposed by Congress:
Let me get this straight. You want to charge me an extra $.61 for every 20 cigarettes I buy - 1 pack - because you are punishing me for doing something bad - smoking. (For anyone counting, $.61 per pack is $6.10 per carton.) However, you want me to keep doing something bad - smoke - so that you can fund healthcare for children. Are you serious?
I firmly support President Bush and his stance on this issue, which is to say that he will veto any such enormous tax added to each pack of cigarettes.
Funding healthcare for children who do not otherwise have coverage is an important issue. However, doing so by adding an additional tax to cigarettes just seems idiotic.
What do you think?
Read more here: Congress Seeks to Raise Cigarette Tax 61 Cents Per Pack to Fund SCHIP
Take Care,
Tiffany
(1 Comment Transferred; original posting date 11/11/07, 5:11 PM.)
- This is what I call double moral: They want people to quit smoking and on the other hand calculating State Income. As we said in my childhood: sooner or later we have to pay taxes for fresh air... Need I say more? Nice to have found your blog- for a Norwegian November 17, 2007 3:17 PM
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