James Pringle

Back in February, Barry signed a new bill into law raising the federal tax on cigarettes by about $1.00. Despite your opinion about smoking or smokers, I think picking on smokers and/or the tobacco companies is ultimately a good thing, and it is “picking on them”. Let’s not fool ourselves. Honestly, it couldn’t be a better situation.

The government and other activist groups have succeeded in making smokers the most despised group of people in America (do smokers actually still count as real people? Maybe just 2/3), so who is really going to care if they are hit with a tax increase? No one. In fact, the situation is even more rosier than that. People are downright glad that they are “picked on”. “Serves them right”, they think. Any other group of people who would be subjected to such precise tax targeting would revolt. If they aimed their targets at soda, for instance, people would have a much more realistic chance of boycotting soda. With cigarettes however you don’t even have that caveat. You know the smokers are going to complain, but they’ll pay because they are addicted, and no one is going to give them sympathy. So, from the feds perspective they have a win-win situation.

In these hard economic times we have to get extra money for certain programs from somewhere and no one is going to care if we tap the smokers wallets. In this instance the cause is the expansion of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, or SCHIP. This expansion will cost $35 million over five years and is expected to secure federally funded health care for an additional 4 million children. This is all completely kosher to me.

If my self-inflicted addiction can help someone else then so be it. But,…

If I am happily willing (although obviously forced) to let my habit and slow suicide help others then the government and the activist groups need to get off smokers backs. They have already banned (rightfully so) smoking from almost all public buildings (and where it isn’t it should be), so if I am not harming you anymore in your pristine, perfect, healthy world then leave me the hell alone and stop judging me. I don’t go after your caffeine addictions, your fast food habits, or any other bad choices we all decide to make, so stop prosecuting me for mine just because it happens to be the one you don’t participate in.

Furthermore, the government at least needs to pick what side they’re on. Currently they play both sides of the fence because they collectively have no morals or principles. Stop acting like you want people to quit smoking when in fact you couldn’t care less. Example: How is funding a children’s program supposed to make me feel more guilty about smoking? I guess it’s not supposed to and it certainly doesn’t. If the government wanted to persuade people to stop smoking why doesn’t Congress pass a bill that allots a percentage of all tax revenue earned from cigarette sales to be directly placed in the hands of Al-Qaeda? That might guilt some people out of smoking.

In all seriousness though, if smokers are not harming you anymore with their “second-hand smoke” then you shouldn’t be legislating your taste.

In a related story, the Senate passed a bill recently on June 11, 2009 that gives regulators more authority over how much nicotine the tobacco companies can put in their product, limits tobacco companies ability to appeal to younger generations with flashy ads, and bans flavored products, which also appeals to the younger audience. This I will say is also a good thing. While I might smoke, I hate it, and I wish no one would ever start again.

But, what would happen to those poor 4 million children without health care? I guess they would get their money from some other newly vilified group.