I understand that voters in Oregon defeated a proposed tax increase yesterday, by a wide margin of 60% against the increase, 40% for it. I say GOOD JOB!
There are so many arguments for increasing smoker’s taxes, we’ve all heard them:
- The higher taxes will dramatically reduce youth smoking
- Less smoking will lead to lower tobacco-related health care costs
- The monies collected will be used to pay for kid’s health care programs
- Thousands of lives will be saved
- Etc. Etc. Etc.
This is so much bull it’s hard to know where to start- in my book it all boils down to someone wanting to raise my taxes to fund whatever pet government program they are pushing that week.
Think about it this way- every time you vote “Yes” for a tax increase, YOU will have to pay more taxes somewhere. So if you raise your taxes say, $100 per year, that is $100 you HAVE to give to some governmental agency like the IRS. What happens if you do not pay your taxes? If it’s bad enough, you will go to JAIL. At its core, that’s why we all submit to the government every single April 15 and pay up.
So you have to go to work another day this year and every year after that (assuming you make $100/day) just to pay that tax increase. IF you didn’t have to pay that extra $100, then you could have taken another day off to goof around, or used the money to buy something you want (like a nice box of cigars), which would stimulate the economy and yes, cause more taxes to be paid by the merchant you bought something from, the staff he is paying to work the store, etc. etc. — It’s all a good thing when you have lower taxes!
I probably shouldn’t say it but this belief is the reason I vote against virtually every tax increase I see. Yes, I even voted against the increased property tax to fund our local library yesterday! (It passed anyway.)
I guess I haven’t even addressed the health issues raised by smoking (a bunch of balony, especially with cigars), but it is already getting hard enough to find somewhere to smoke and the prices have been getting driven up so much through increased taxes, that it seems like the poor persecuted smokers are going to all disappear soon! But we at Top Hat Tobacco are helping combat that problem with our nice smoking lounge which all are invited to use for free! Come on by and enjoy a nice, fat, cigar. While you are here, enjoy the Wi-Fi or the big screen TV. By the way, we have a Cigar Happy Hour every Friday, and a special manufacturer’s party by CAO tomorrow which I’ll write another blog entry about shortly.
Have a great day, and smoke one for me!