Well, I finally decided to quit smoking . . . the straw that broke the camel's back is the latest tax increase on cigarettes that was just implemented.

Yeah, I can still afford to smoke; but it is more to the principle of it all (not considerig the health aspects of it all). I simply refuse to be gouged with more taxes on cigarettes. Now they can get by with the tax money that I was previously paying. Perhaps enough smokers will quit to offset the tax increase amount; and leading to more layoffs in the cigarette business.

Wouldn't it have been MORE PROFITABLE to raise taxes on ALL alcoholic drinks . . . hard liquor, wines, and any drinks containing alcohol . . . than to raise taxes on cigarettes. (I really don't drink enough to be counted as a drinker).

Perhaps if they raise all of the "sin" taxes, we can become a nation of moral religious fanatics, lead by the likes of Rush Limbaugh or a "Jerry Falwell" type zealots.

Why not legalize and tax marijuana? That would resolve a lot of problems: lower the profit incentive for drug dealers; and rive them out of business; reduce the burden on law enforcement, the judicial systems, and out prisons for pursuing minor uses of "pot", and substantilly increasing tax revenues . . . Marijuana is the LARGEST "CASH CROP" by dollar value in the USA.

Wouldn's a FLAT TAX RATE, without any "loop holes for the special interests and corporations, be the easiest way to equitably resolve the tax revenue problems? (And won't the tax attorneys and accountants fight that "tooth and nail" along with the more affluent and wealthy?)

The Lawmakers don't have the "political courage" to address these other considerations; but they feel safe in raising taxes on cigarettes. The always take the safest and easiest way out politically.

They claim there are oh-sooo many people dying from cigarettes and second-hand smoke,well why dont they do some research to find out just how many people die every year from alcohol and alcohol related car accidents, domestic violence, shootings, and should I go on with the list? If you all will think back, all of this started with the commercial on tv where they are stacking up body bags saying basically that was how many people die from cigarettes each year. I lost my brother from alcohol and the s.o.b. did not even see the inside of jail. The government is just sitting back and letting this kind of thing happen every day. I say T A X liquor and beer just like you did cigarettes. I believe alcoholics should have been stopped first. I know my opinion dont count for much, but watch your brother go flying higher than a telephone pole and then lay there and die because of a sorry-xxx drunk when youre only 11 and he is only 13, see if you would be upset. I say T A X the xxxx out of alcohol!!!!!!!!!!

I can still afford to smoke; but it is more to the principle of it all (not considerig the health aspects of it all). I simply refuse to be gouged with more taxes on cigarettes.

Jens Pulver

I believe alcoholics should have been stopped first.

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