If this doesn’t make you quit, nothing will.
With a new 62 cent federal tax on cigarettes added this week with the passage of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program law, the new price of a pack of cigarettes will soar past $10 in Manhattan.
The NYC price is higher than anywhere in the country and more than twice the national average. And beginning April 1, two-thirds of that cost will be made up of city, state and federal taxes.
Of course, even if you can afford to buy a pack, where would you smoke it?
Michael Seilback of the American Lung Association of New York state, says the added costs are a good thing, and may help cut down on the 35,000 smoking-related deaths in the state every year, and some $1.7 billion in future health costs.
On the other hand, the taxes could be so effective that everyone quits, and there’s no money for state, federal and city health programs.
(Source: NY Post)
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5 Responses
If its stops people then maybe it will be a good idea !
This is a terrible law. Any time the goverment tries to force people to do things like this, it takes away our freedom. It is wrong to “punish” citizens for choosing to life with lifestyles that don’t conform with a particular gov’t employees ideals. The role of the Gov’t should be to preserve and protect people’s right to choose what they feel is best for them. This steals our liberties and is only one small step away from the Gov’t fining Jews for keeping Shabbos. They can tax us for not productivly working on saturdays and yomim toivim if this keeps up.
Besides, financially speaking it is wrong. It hurts the individual who has to pay more for his pack of smokes now which isn’t fair to him. It hurts the city’s finances too because now people will be buying there smokes from NJ and elsewhere. It hurts the ability of the Tobacco Companies who pay out billions of dollars to the states due to a large settlement some years ago.
I don’t smoke. I never have and no one else in my family smokes that I am aware of. I simply see this as a travesty of our rights to live in a “free” country.
רש”י על דברים פרק ו פסוק ה
ובכל מאודך – בכל ממונך, יש לך אדם שממונו חביב עליו מגופו, לכך נאמר בכל מאדך.
Rashi says that some people treasure their money more then their lives. For those foolish people, maybe this will help.
To #3: The government already uses the tax system to encourage some behavior and to discourage other behavior. For example, certain tax credits are given for making your home more energy efficient. Getting married and having children has tax advantages. There is no sales tax on food, but there is on junk food and other “non-essentials.” Charitable contributions are tax deductible. And so on.
Here the government has a very good reason to discourage smoking. Those who become sick due to smoking and are uninsured expect the government to step in. The government has every right to try to reign in those astronomical costs. Those who are insured, and become sick due to smoking, vastly increase the cost of medical insurance for others, including employers who subside employee insurance. This has numerous unintended consequences, such as employers stopping to subsidize insurance, laying off workers, and/or going out of business; all of these things result in numerous costs to the government.
nfgo2,
The bill you are referring to was a bad bill which of course our bleeding heart leftist president signed into law. All it adds up to is socialized medicine which as in the case of all countries that have it… IT STINKS and does the country NO GOOD. People can afford normal insurance for their kids, they should get it.
As for how it will pay for it, you are asking the 64 thousand dollar question which if you are a lib, you cannot ask. They want to “punish” some people but if they stop smoking, how does the lib agenda get paid for? Answer…. THEY WILL STEAL MORE MONEY FROM YOUR POCKET.