As many cigarette smokers are aware, the federal tax on cigarettes rose 62 cents a couple days ago. This is the biggest increase in the federal cigarette taxes ever, jumping from 39 cents to $1.01, an 159% hike [1].
If you recall, Obama pledged on the campaign trail not to raise any tax on people earning under $200,000/yr. The vast majority of cigarette consumers fit into the category of people living below this income level. While any good politician could wiggle out of this argument, you can see that the principle behind the promise is most certainly broken, and that should ideally be a factor in determining completion of campaign promises.
Within the first 100 days, you can see that prices on goods are in an upward turn. The margin of tax revenue in consumer spending is expanding. This tobacco tax increase is backed up by the left-wing argument of being beneficial because it discourages consumption. There is a fine line between acceptable, upward bumps in tobacco taxes that fund anti-smoking education, and misdirected leaps justified by detering people from shelling out money on cigarettes. It's well known that people who commit to quitting if prices continue going up do not, we're dealing in addictive substances.
The last point to be made relates to the biggest issue I've covered on this blog, which is legalization of marijuana. Within a week, Obama claims that taxing substances is not a good way of increasing revenue and economic conditions, and imposes the biggest federal tobacco tax hike we've ever seen. If tax revenue is what we really need, why aren't we considering all options?
[1]: www.foxnews.com 3/29/09
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