I don’t smoke…but I use to.
New Hampshire has joined a bunch of other states in implementing a ban on all smoking in restaurants and bars. A lot of the do-gooder liberals who support this faulty premise of protecting me from myself also wish to raise the tax on cigarettes. Does this seem a little disingenuous to you? Well it does to me. First off, cigarettes are a legal product. If it’s so bad for me why not ban it all together? (Oops, I forgot we tried that back in 1929 with booze didn’t we? How did that work out?)
Some folks in this country need to get their heads out of their…excuse me, this is a family blog so you will have to guess where I was going with that side comment. We are not and should not be a Nanny State like so many enlighted folks seem to think. I don’t need you to protect me from the evils of smoking. I quit 11 years ago because my cute 6-year old daughter asked me to.
Smoking is a legal product. So why do we treat it as a pariah product on one hand and then tax the hell out of it in another? MONEY—that’s why. The taxes on tobacco in this country pay a lot of government costs. You want to protect me from something? How about fixing the mess we call healthcare—now that would be worthwhile. But hell, that might be too hard so you’ll go after the smoker and make him go outside to smoke.
I thought I lived in a state whose motto was “Live Free or Die”? Well it seems some of you insist on taking that freedom away from me. I did not elect you to do that. While people’s health is important, and I acknowledge that smoking is not good for anyone, stop making the smokers of the world outcasts in society. We have way to many other problems. Iraq is one of them.
September 24th, 2007 at 4:52 pm
Didn’t you know the slogan changed to “Live Free or Die Smoking outside punk”
September 25th, 2007 at 2:51 pm
Al, it’s a public health/public safety issue. You don’t have the right to drive while intoxicated because that activity endangers other people’s lives. You shouldn’t have the right to smoke in a public place because you are endangering the health of other people, not just your own. In a perfect world, smokers would understand this on their own and refrain from smoking in public buildings out of courtesy. But it’s not a perfect world, so I think the law makes sense. And as you know, I’m still a smoker. A liberal smoker, yes, but still a smoker.
September 27th, 2007 at 12:19 pm
Came to chec k out your agency and stumbled upon this. I believe you have this backwards sir.
The fact is, the reason taxes are so high on cigarettes is to cover the costs of the multi-billion dolaar lawsuits that the tobacco companies faced. If they didn’t get the additional tax, you’re looking at Kraft Foods, one of the 10 largest companies in the US, going bankrupt. That, my friend, would cause a recession.
Those are the facts. I studied this during my MBA. But I should have known that anyone that begins a post with, “do-gooder liberals”, probably doesn’t have too many facts straight.
Good luck.
September 27th, 2007 at 1:48 pm
Thanks for the post and since I wrote it I will make one quick point of counterpoint. The taxes on cigarettes don’t go to Kraft Foods they go to the State and Federal Government. You might have had a better argument to tell me the taxes fund health care cost for those who smoke. My argument was still more about it is a legal product, correct?
But no matter thanks for being engaged if more of us were this country would be a better place no matter what side you’re on.