Quote:
Originally Posted by Kevin
I'm not so sure how it's helpful to our economy for our Medicare and Medicaid programs to be paying out the nose for the health problems the smoking industry causes.
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This argument would make sense if the monies raised from those taxes actually went to Medicaid or Medicare for the treatment of tobacco related illnesses. However, it doesn't. It would make more sense to have tobacco users pay more for their health care (Medicare/medicaid taxes, health insurance premiums, etc).
I am never really clear on the goal of increasing tobacco taxes. If the goal is to get people to quit smoking, then why not just bite the bullet and make smoking illegal. Why keep farting around with it? Making more and more laws about when/where people can smoke and making smokers pay more and more to do it.
If the goal is to increase revenues, this has backfired on some states because, as they increase the tax, more people quit smoking and they end up getting fewer revenues in the long run.
And, what happens if we manage to eradicate smoking completely? What is going to be taxed then? High fat foods? Trans fats? Sugar? If the goal is to make people pay for poor health decisions (ie. a punitive measure to deter unhealthy behaviors), then how about a lazy tax for people who don't exercise regularly? An STD tax for people who get an STD because they didn't use protection? How do you tax the people with hypertension who eat a ton of salt? The diabetics who don't follow their diet? The heart patients who don't exercise and eat right?
I can truly say at this point that I'm a non-smoker (as of Mother's Day) and I'm glad that this new tax won't affect me, but I have no doubt that after they are done attacking the smokers, there will be another group to go after and another tax to come around.
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