Tobacco Taxes for SCHIP Signed into law

[RedPop4]

Obama has signed SCHIP into law

Previous SCHIP articles

Passed by the Senate

Republicans opposed to SCHIP

House Vote from January 16th

 

[Mr. Paladin]

I am pleased to see that my Representative, the Honorable Ralph Hall (TX.), voted AGAINST this travesty. :eusa_clap :eusa_clap :eusa_clap

 

[RondoHatton]

So much for the campaign pledge to give the public five days to review and comment on a bill before he signs it.

Another nail in the coffin (coffin nails, anyone?) of the neighborhood smoke shop. State and local taxes have already lost us some of the most comfortable, hospitable cigar stores, where one could also smoke and relax in well-worn red leather club chairs amid bygone artifacts - there used to be such a lovely, affordable, retro place in Burbank. Now only the high-roller "Gordon Gekko" cigar lounges catering to the elite, or the no-soul strip-mall discount cheap cigarette outlets remain. Oh, that and the crack-pipe type "smoke shops" catering to the "medical marijuana" crowd which seem to pop up every week like weeds (ouch).

 

[DBLIII]

I thought it was interesting that the tax on loose tobacco went from a bit over $1 a pound to a bit over $24 a pound. Rolling cigarettes won't be much of a way to save money anymore.
What's next? A tax on soft drinks (Chicago has it already, NY wants it), then a tax on coffee?
Oh, well.

 

[RedPop4]

You really have to fight every little battle, because once one is lost, they all follow.

 

[tinmanzzz]

It's A Shame

It is hard to believe that the American Smoker has allowed themselves to be persecuted this much. If we were an religious group or ethnic group, the ACLU would be up in arms.
Also, at a time when so many are losing their job it would seem an unfair burden.
Maybe we should all quit smoking and let them figure out how to replace the tax money.

Time to take up a pipe

 

[BlindeMan]

Rant

I've seen too many people suffering from diseases that are directly related to their (or their parents) smoking to have much sympathy for smokers insisting that their freedom to smoke is in jeopardy.

I'm not going to waste time arguing with the people who believe that secondhand smoke is benign anymore than I would waste time trying to prove gravity to them. If you want to buy the findings of research bought by the people who spent the second half of the last century telling you that cigarettes were good for your T-zone, you go right ahead.

Just remember that, much like the motorcyclist who refuses to wear their helmet, smokers are not only affecting themselves. When that motorcyclist cracks their skull on the freeway all the rest of us are paying for result: from the neurosurgeon putting in the ventriculostomy catheter to the guy who scrapes the brains off of the freeway.

Similarly, If you are a smoker there is a good chance that I am going to wind up paying for your habit. Perhaps are on medicaid/medicare and I'm paying for your doctors visits and your Spiriva. Maybe I'm paying too high of an insurance premium so they can afford to pay for your cardiac catheterization or to have oxygen delivered to your home.

So if you are going to smoke, even if you are doing it outside, 30 feet away from the entrance of the restaurant where my family is eating, you still have your hand in my wallet - and I don't appreciate it.

If you don't like our hand in your pocket, trying to obtain healthcare for children, please remember that turnabout is fair play.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

"Ladies and gentlemen, we're experiencing some turbulence. Please return to your seats and fasten your seatbelts."

.

 

[John Boyer]

Time to take up a pipe [/COLOR][/SIZE]

Hard to believe,[huh] but even the pipe smoker was penalized in this bill.

John

 

[RedPop4]

I've seen too many people suffering from diseases that are directly related to their (or their parents) smoking to have much sympathy for smokers insisting that their freedom to smoke is in jeopardy.

I'm not going to waste time arguing with the people who believe that secondhand smoke is benign anymore than I would waste time trying to prove gravity to them. If you want to buy the findings of research bought by the people who spent the second half of the last century telling you that cigarettes were good for your T-zone, you go right ahead.

Just remember that, much like the motorcyclist who refuses to wear their helmet, smokers are not only affecting themselves. When that motorcyclist cracks their skull on the freeway all the rest of us are paying for result: from the neurosurgeon putting in the ventriculostomy catheter to the guy who scrapes the brains off of the freeway.

Similarly, If you are a smoker there is a good chance that I am going to wind up paying for your habit. Perhaps are on medicaid/medicare and I'm paying for your doctors visits and your Spiriva. Maybe I'm paying too high of an insurance premium so they can afford to pay for your cardiac catheterization or to have oxygen delivered to your home.

So if you are going to smoke, even if you are doing it outside, 30 feet away from the entrance of the restaurant where my family is eating, you still have your hand in my wallet - and I don't appreciate it.

If you don't like our hand in your pocket, trying to obtain healthcare for children, please remember that turnabout is fair play.

Wow. Att-i-TUDE.
Oh, you're SO right. You TOLD us, now didn't you?
I'm going to throw all of my cigars away as soon as I finish typing this post. since you were so nice to me and you don't appreciate it.

The WHO and the EPA studies on ETS (Environmental Tobacco Smoke) that you, and so many others with your nose in my business, love to cite were DISCREDITED. The WHO was wrong, the EPA was skewed to achieve desired results. Didn't hear much about that, did you? Why no, you didn't. I wonder why that is? Well darn it, we just mean so well, saving all these people from themselves and you just don't appreciate it hey, my clothes stink.

But you go right ahead and keep fighting the good fight, because, darn it, you're just so much smarter than us. Hey, what are you eating in that restaurant? I hope it's vegetables prepared in canola oil, you're not eating Meat are you? Meat is murder, you know. Plus, you're clogging your arteries with all that restaurant food, and we're going to have to pay for your fat a$$ when your cholesterol gets to 300 and won't come down and you need bypasses. That happens. I know people it's happened to, just as EVERYONE you know who smokes got emphysema or cancer too, so therefore we're all eeeeeevil and you get to tell us off.You'd better start eating your rice cakes,carrots and celery, yo, so we don't have to cover your insurance bills.

Oh, and that healthcare for the chirren? The "poor" are defined as making UP TO $80,000 per year, and are covered by SCHIP until they're nearly 30.
And yet another thing. To continue funding SCHIP, as it's written now, you'd need 25,000,000 people to START SMOKING to cover the future shortfalls. BRILLIANT legislation there.

 

[RondoHatton]

Thanks, Redpop4 -
There are none so blinde as those who will not see.
That specious argument slops over to insult motorcyclists as well - perhaps the very motorcyclist whose skull was cracked due to a la-dee-dah car driver blah-blahing on their precious cellphone while supposedly driving - worse than a "drunk" driver, especially at ever-reduced blood-alcohol levels, thank you M.A.D.D., the organization whose founder abandoned in disgust, who exists now to collect revenue to feed it's bloated "administration". Perhaps the motorcyclist (affecting others by saving on gas and traffic) whose organs will be harvested to prolong someone else's politically correct existence.
Similarly, if you came here to drop your anchor baby, there is a good chance I am paying for your family's healthcare & education. And phooey on those poor ignorant crackers who choose to live in a place like Kentucky, where it freezes, guess they get what they deserve eh?
Turnabout is fair play? How bipartisan.

Cancel my rhumba lessons.

 

[scotrace]

Oh look, it's the smoking war again.