April Fools Smoke For the Children /Recycled Playlists
Playlists: Thanks to WMG, the life span of these will not be long.
Night Life
dhyambin
more coming
About 12 years ago, I quit smoking chemically laced pre-rolled. highly taxed commercial cigarettes. After a brief and expensive flirtation with really good cigars, I switched to Roll My Own. One thing, I quickly found it impossible to be around people who smoked most brands of pre-rolled cigarettes. They have an odd, gassy odor. Plus, I saved a lot of money. In 1996, I could buy 6 ounces of Bugler, with rolling papers, for about 6 bucks. That was enough to make about 240 cigarettes. So it came out to about 50 cents per pack. Over the years, this gradually doubled. So, until April Fools Day of 2009, I was spending about a buck a pack.
TMALSLL: Barack Obama recently signed an expanded Children's Health Care Package. This included a small tax increase on tobacco products used by the well to do. Meanwhile, the tax on Roll Your Own tobacco was increased to $24.78 per pound, a $23.68 increase. Studies show that most people who roll their own cigarettes are the working poor, the unemployed, or those on fixed incomes. In other words; Obama, Waxman {Henry W appears to be the main force behind this}, and other Democrats decided it was a good idea to fund health care for children by imposing a 2200% tax increase on perhaps the poorest segment of American society.
They have admitted, in the legislation itself, that this will make it impossible for many to keep smoking, causing revenue from the tax to shrink. The logic is that will be off set by lower health care costs. Let me see if I follow this. If poor adult Americans quit smoking; health care costs for American children will decline? That passes for logic in Congress. They have also admitted it will aggravate an already growing cigarette smuggling problem. Guess who is in the tobacco smuggling business? If you guessed people who fund terrorists, you are likely right.
Anyway, Bugler at local shops now runs about 30 bucks for 6 ounces. That comes out to about $2.50 per pack. That is still half the price of the only smokable pre-rolled brand {Camel}; but is about the same or a bit less than the nasty generics marketed by Phillip Morris {who backed Waxman's scheme}. BTW, I am not going back to those. I did some shopping on line. It looks like 90% of suppliers are simply dropping roll your own lines. However, a pound of additive free bulk cigarette tobacco can be had for about 47 US Washingtons. Of that, 2 bucks goes to farmers. The Feds get almost 25. The other 20 pays the processors and others in the chain. So, even with the added cost of papers, sales tax, and postage, I can keep my cost to roughly a buck a pack ~~ if tobacco that cheap is smokable and keeps fresh that long. I could just quit; but someone has to pay for children's health care.
Posted by rbeck at April 28, 2009 03:41 PM
Comments
I used to smoke marlboro cigaretes for many years. Before that I smoked Kools.
I stopped smoking after I went back to riding motorcycles again. It is hard to smoke and ride.
I had my wife hypnotized to stop smoking, making it easier for me to quit. I can not be hypnotized. I have met Kreskin and others and I am not a good subject.
I used deep breathing exercises to quit smoking, becuase I promised myself I would quit when the price was unacceptable to me. it sounds like you are there already.
I have not smoked for at least ten or more years now. I do not miss it, and the smell of a smoker afterwards is terrible still, and I guess that is what helps me.
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I also used a GNH anti-smoking and anti-nicotine capsules for ten days to rid my body of the toxins.
I am switching to a pipe. The roll your own cigarette tobacco, best price, is 47 dollars per pound. $24.78 of that is the Obama-Waxman tax. Compare that to the tax on Pipe tobacco, which is only $2.11 per pound. I can get better pipe tobacco for a lot less money.
Cigars get a huge break. The tax is capped at 4 bucks. So the tax on a cheap cigar, and a top of the line cigar, is the same. That is called regressive taxation. Of course, pipe and cigar smokers are a more upscale market; with more effective lobbyists.
The average person does not care. They are happy enough to see cigarette smokers taxed.
Quit my beloved Pall Malls ten days ago. So no more tobacco for me. I thought that tax hike on bulk tobacco was only here in CA. When I used to roll my own I favored that cheap, sweet, probably chemically laden, TOP. For more of a kick I used to mix in some shaved licorice bark until I became convinced it was probably bad for my health. It was probably ten years ago that I started smoking again and for all that time Pall Malls have been the only thing that satisfied. Quitting for a couple of weeks isn't hard for me, it's geting from one month to six months that's the hard part. The first two weeks I get by on pure stubborness.
Posted by: clown hidden at April 30, 2009 11:14 AM