Thursday, April 2, 2009
Smoke smoke smoke
Asleep @ the Wheel~ Smoke Smoke Smoke that cigarette & vintage cigarette ads
Well here is a tax I don't mind--
(KVAL News reports) As of April 1, 2009: a 62 cent increase in the federal tobacco tax, from 39 cents to $1.01 per pack.
Add in Oregon's tax of $1.18 per pack -- which some lawmakers in Salem want to increase by another 60 cents -- and Oregon smokers pay more than $2 in taxes per package of cigarettes.
The new tax revenue will pay for a major expansion of health insurance for children.
Smokers make this choice. Not like the old days when commercials with slogans such as "Just what the Doctor Ordered" prevailed. Smokers tax the health system, and I have no problem with them paying more into said system.
The Truth. The real Marlboro Cowboy
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13 comments:
I remember that Asleep at the Wheel song! I have no problem with the ciggie tax either, but I can imagine smokers thinking they are being picked on. Maybe next they will start taxing junk food at a higher rate. It's pretty unhealthy, too. Perhaps that will be the kick in the (ever expanding) rear end Americans need to become healthier!
Oh! I stumbled on this Marlboro cowboy clip too, had to throw it in.
Smokers want their freedom until the cancer sets in, then they want everyone to pick up the tab for their astronomical medical bills.
Plus the whole 2nd hand smoke debacle.
My dad was a 3 pack a day smoker... which meant he pretty much had a cigarette going every waking hour.
As a kid, when we were in the enclosed car.... it made me sick to the point I tossed my cookies.
I hear you, but there is zero necessity for cigs.... it is a total drug of choice.
Asleep @ the Wheel.... blast from the past huh?
I wouldn't say all smokers Fran.. I never did.. I never expected anyone to pay my medical bills if I got sick when I smoked. I thought it was stupid of people and the courts who allowed them to sue the tobacco companies and granted them awards. I still do now that I am an ex smoker.
I can't say that I feel any better for not smoking, I don't breathe any better, the only thing I can say is I have gained about 30 pounds.. so much for quitting being healthy.. for me it has been anything but healthy.. I am so much worse off now than I was it is terrible. I can't breathe, have more trouble walking and am in much more pain. But I am still not smoking.
hey annette, I think it takes about 5-10 yrs before your system really recovers, depending on how long & how heavily you smoked. one of my uncles got hooked in WW2 when the army distributed free ciggies. emphyzema finally forced him to give them up, but he did eventually stabilize & it would've progressed much faster & been far worse if he'd kept smoking. I say congratulations on stopping smoking! Give your body to recover.
ok, *time* is missing from the above final sentence in my comment. Somehow *time* dropped out. Maybe I need more *time* to proofread.
Hi Annette~ I'm not talking about little healthcare matters all along the way, I am talking about end care or cancer care after years of smoking. When the lungs are damaged beyond repair- when the big "C" cancer takes over- people are no longer able to work and need major surgeries, respiratory therapy, manuel lung suctioning multiple times daily . Surgery, chemo, radiation. Too sick to function.
$100's of thousands in medical bills and disability.
Unless people have their own insurance (which insurance companies won't insure a smoker or charge a whole lot more), that winds up being paid by government programs... i.e. tax money.
Good for you that you quit smoking. You are saving a bundle of cash & your life. As for weight gain that can be a side effect-- but it is not terminal (like cancer)... the gain can be reversed.
Not saying it is easy.... but damage to a vital organ like the lungs & or your cardiovascular system are irreversible.
When a long term smoker lands in the hospital w lung cancer.... they are expecting the general population to pay for that care- because of personal choices they made.
I'll share a part of my experience...
When in high school, smoking was "cool".
I began to smoke (menthals no less!) & my dad begged me not to start. (He was fully addicted to smoking). My teen wisdom at the time was to respond-- I'll quit when YOU do
Then he became totally ill. the last straw was watching the respiratory therapist pound his chest to loosen up the built up fluid in his lungs & work the tube through his mouth into his lungs to suction out fluid, while he struggled with a gag reflex.
It was right then & there, I tossed my pack of cigarettes in the trash can. My whole family did the same.
I was done with cigarette smoking forever.
Back then cigs were .50 cents a pack.
Also the tobacco industry was pumping extra nicotine into cigarettes to make them physically addictive.
The ad marketing campaigns were total false advertising. Hell! Even cartoon characters were smoking- Fred & Wilma Flintstone & Barney Rubble too.
Clean • Cool • Refreshing.
No cancer ward lung suctioning scenes depicted in those ads!
If taxing the bejeebers out of cigarettes helps some people to decide to quit smoking.... then good.
It's a slippery slope to me. Once we start targeting specific groups for tax increases it's easier to fuck with other groups that some people don't like or feel superior to.
Dusty~ This one is not a judgement call, its fact.
Cigarettes will fuck up your health.
I'd like to know the $$ statistics of how much in medical bills smokers rack up for the general public to pick up the tab.
That Marlboro cowboy scene in the streets of NY (so it appears) is a kick.
Interesting street theater. People are drawn to check it out... but then have these looks of horror when they realize what the cowboy is singing about.
So does righting a motorcycle without a helmet Fran. And walking across a street against the light.
Buying cigarettes is legal. Just like buying pink underwear or liquor.
The medical bills for generally unhealthy individuals or even illegal immigrants probably is more than smokers as the number of smokers goes down every year but fat folks and illegal immigrants populations go up.
This just in! Oregon State legislators are looking at making Oregon the first state in the nation to change the legal smoking age 21 years old.
Minors would face a $100 fine if in possession of any tobacco product (including chew).
Statistics show most smokers started before the age of 21.
Dusty~ Point taken. The tax is already in place.... so it's currently a done deal.
I have the same feelings about alcohol.. far as I am concerned they should tax the hell out of it. There are so many killed due to alcohol related "activities" and it is illegal. Drunk driving, underage, parents supplying for their children, the entire scope and range of things. Yet, no one gets on that soap box. Why?? Call it a sin tax, same as cigarettes and tax the hell out of beer, wine, whiskey all the rest and be done with it. Maybe it would stop some of the abuse.
That doesn't even include the number of crimes committed in the name of alcohol, like spousal abuse, theft, and others.
It's true-- alcohol abuse has more innocent victims
but as Dusty & DK pointed out.... it is a slippery slope when you start to tax things for behavior.
Who decides?
there are people who do drink responsibly...
yet it only takes one drunk driver to kill innocent people.
That was my dad's other addiction... besides cigarettes. Drinking.
He totaled a few family cars (back in the day when a family only had 1 car). He lucked out & did not hit or kill anyone else or himself. He should not have had a license.
Once a person hits the physical addiction stage, it probably would not have mattered how much it was taxed, the addict will get their fix.
But paying for sky high medical bills as a result of tobacco, or restitution to families who lost a loved one as a result of drunk driving or abuse is the glimmer of a solution.
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Obama should of said "Read my lips, no new taxes!" Support the sovereign American Indian Nations! Tobaccobymail.com
It's all so hopenchangey.
The governments imposing these tobacco SIN taxes are actually committing racist acts since most smokers are lower income, and many of them are minorities. Obama committed a racist act with this tax increase. Completely regressive. Why don't they tax cigs $1,000 a carton?
There are way too many laws already, but we need a one that says a 'Sin' tax may not be more than 100-150% of the Retail price. Ever.
They don't want all people to quit, just enough to toot their horns to justify their tyranny. They will still be able to rely on all those taxes continually coming in from the hardcore addicts, which at the increasingly obscene rates will easily make up the taxes lost from the small percentage of quitters.
Politicians don't want people to stop smoking. If they did they would tax them $100 per pack. But this would just increase the black market even more, and the state would get no money.
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absurd thought -
God of the Universe says
raise taxes on the poor
tax cigs 200 percent
hurt poor smokers the most
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absurd thought -
God of the Universe says
create racist outcomes
raise some taxes on the poor
hurt minorities the most
.
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