Saturday, July 21, 2007

Because they haven't yet figured out how to directly tax "fun"...

Cigarette smoking as a vice is being taxed and regulated into oblivion. I'm used to this. I'm used to feeling like I'm living in some adult-sized Romper Room with high taxes and armed guards. But they're not happy with the cigarette smokers, or "Niccers", as L. Neil Smith termed us. Now they're going after cigars, too. I don't smoke cigars. I don't plan to smoke cigars. I don't really know anybody who's a serious cigar aficionado.

Yet this makes me mad.

This is what it's come to. This is where the Republic has wound up; a never-ending quest for suitably unpopular activities to tax into oblivion to pay for ill-thought, graft- and incompetence-riddled, un-Constitutional programs that exist merely to buy votes from the soft of heart and soft of head.
Congress -- meeting in smoke-free rooms -- is looking for an extra $35 billion to $50 billion for the state children's health insurance program [which is none of Congress's business according to the Constitution] and hopes to raise most of it through excise taxes on products like tobacco.

...

There is currently 4.8 cents-per-cigar tax cap but under the proposed bill, taxes on "large cigars," a category that includes all but the tiny cigars sold in packs of 20 like cigarettes, would rise to 53 percent.
A version of the bill being considered by the Senate Finance Committee sets the maximum tax per cigar at $10.

Jerks.

10 comments:

Oleg Volk said...

And they can watch tax revenues from cigars DROP after the RATE goes up, too.

Anonymous said...

Be angry at the sun for setting...

Anonymous said...

The good news is Bush promised to veto this POS. The bad news is that enough jackasses thought it was a good idea that it made it this far.

The last time something was taxed so utterly disproportionately, the fishes in Boston Harbor all enjoyed the worlds largest cup of tea. Having just invested in a rather sizable humidor, I'd encourage everyone to contact their congresscritters and remind them that we still know where the Indian costumes are.

Anonymous said...

And here I was thinking "Oh God, he can't have read this yet, the living room walls still have paint."

Good grief. Ten bucks is more than we pay per cigar unless they're REALLY good cigars!

Anonymous said...

As someone who enjoys bourbon, I can sympathize. About half the price of it are taxes.

What are they going to come after when all that tobacco tax money dries up? Snack food, I'm guessing.

phlegmfatale said...

It's very crafty how our legislators cobble such unconscionable confiscations of wealth onto the issues that excite God's little hall monitors. Schmucks, the lot of 'em.

Anonymous said...

Don't forget that this tax is so a family of four (with "children" as old as 25) and a gross income of ~$84K won't have to buy health insurance. I'm rapidly moving over to the "rope,tree, some assembly required" column.

BobG said...

Wonder how much tax they'd charge for this cigar.
This photo is one I took at the Ripley's Believe it or Not Museum in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

Anonymous said...

Please note that we do not know that the rooms they are meeting in are smoke-free. We also do not know that the gongressrats are buying taxed cigars. We do know that the State Department has a 50 cigar allowance for cuban cigars if they have any reason to be in Cuba. Yes, I know this for a fact due to a friend who did a stint with the UN in Cuba and qualified for the State Dept. allowance.

I wonder how many 'fact-finding missions' etc... happen each year.

Caleb said...

At this rate, it's going to be cheaper to fly to the Domican and buy my cigars directly.

Hooray.