Obama Breaks Tax Pledge
by Big Dog on Apr 2, 2009 at 09:32 Political
Barack Obama promised, and Joe Biden echoed, that no family making under $250,000 would see any kind of tax increase. He was not just talking income taxes, he said ALL taxes. That pledge was broken on the 1st of April when the tax on a pack of cigarettes was increased. The poor are the greatest users of tobacco and thus this tax will disproportionately affect them. A person who smokes one pack a day will pay around $30 a month in taxes or $360 a year.
“I can make a firm pledge,” he said in Dover, N.H., on Sept. 12. “Under my plan, no family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase. Not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your taxes.” [emphasis mine] Breitbart
I have no problem if people want to smoke. It is legal to smoke and if people want to use tobacco then that is their business. However, government claims that people should not smoke and it tries to discourage it. This is one of the stated reasons for the tax increase. In reality, only about 10% of people who try to quit actually succeed so the tax will not likely spur many people to give up the habit though I am hoping more people find the strength to quit.
I want them to quit, not because it is bad for their health, though that is a good reason, but to keep the government from collecting on their vices. The major reason is because the government will use the money to fund children’s health care. Only in America would we tax an addictive, unhealthy product and use the money for health care. While Obama claimed he would pay for his programs, including health care, by taxing the rich, he is actually doing it on the backs of the poor. Additionally, there will need to be about 20 million new smokers to pay for the expansion of children’s health care. Where will the additional money come from, especially if more people are actually successful and quit? The government used this backdoor method to expand children’s health care and will now go after any method to pay for it including raising taxes in general.
I know that the liberals will complain that this is another “right wing lie” by the conservatives who are not happy with Obama. The hero worship in them prevents them from seeing the truth. The reality is that Obama said “NOT ANY OF YOUR TAXES” when discussing those making under $250,000 but the increase on tobacco is an increase on those making much less than that.
I encourage smokers to make a serious attempt to quit. There are products on the market to aid in smoking cessation (one of which is advertised at the top of my sidebar) and smokers should avail themselves of these in order to quit.
Quitting will be good for your health and it will deprive the vultures in DC of your money. It will hurt their plan to pay for health care on your backs and it will take one of the chains that bind you to government away. You see, this is just one tax increase. If they need more money they can always raise the tax on tobacco some more. Why wait until you have paid them a fortune?
Quit now, for your health and to screw those in DC who lied to you about raising your taxes.
[tip]If you enjoy what you read consider signing up to receive email notification of new posts. There are several options in the sidebar and I am sure you can find one that suits you. If you prefer, consider adding this site to your favorite feed reader. If you receive emails and wish to stop them follow the instructions included in the email.[/tip]
Tags: health care, lies, Obama, tax increase, taxes, tobacco
No shock there. I have no doubt that there will be futher tax increases coming in the future. It’s just a matter of time.
Obama clearly meant payroll and income taxes because he spoke often on the subject in his campaign. He apparently wasn’t reading his teleprompter correctly when a statement that absolute slipped out. You’d think politicians would learn not to give statements in the style of Bush 41 and his “read my lips” disaster.
On the other hand who gives a crap? This is fodder for a campaign video but it doesn’t make or break the man. Politifact has a list of promises kept and broken by Obama but I don’t know if this one rates the list. This is not the worst of Obama’s broken promises by far. A tobacco tax is still an optional tax on a luxury item no matter what is said, this is no poor tax.
Studies do show a direct drop in adolescent smoking when there is a cost increase and most adult smokers started smoking when they were young. So if we have a broken promise let it be on a tax increase that cuts the rate of adolescent smoking.
Adam,
If the government wants to stop the youth from smoking then why not make tobacco illegal? That would solve the problem.
The reason they will not is because government depends on tobacco users to raise revenue. If it did not make government so much money they would make it illegal.
I have no problem with the unintended consequence of causing the young to quit (or never start) but then the question becomes, where will they get the money committed to the children’s health program?
They have committed spending the money and if tobacco revenues decrease then they will have to raise taxes somewhere else.
Smoking is not a luxury. It is a drug addiction. A luxury is going out for entertainment or other activity. Nicotine is a drug as addictive as cocaine.
We treat drug addicts but encourage tobacco use to increase revenue. For you to say it is a luxury as if people could just stop at anytime demonstrates a lack of thought on the subject.
I don’t want to get into a debate over why the government bans certain drugs and not others because that could go on for a year. The main point is simply that we don’t have to ban dangerous things completely from a civil liberties standpoint when we can simply enact policy that will discourage that activity. Not a template you’d use on every policy of course but it seems to be working for tobacco…
If there’s a better word than luxury to denote that people do not have to smoke to survive and therefore aren’t forced to pay a tobacco tax, then you can find me one…
I’m sure the poor smoking folks out there appreciate your concern for their well being all of the sudden when the subject is something you can club Obama with.
I find it so amusing that this new tax is invoked in the name of healthcare for children and all that crap – and then like 100 million dollars in the stimulus is for stop smoking programs. LOL Talk about hypocrisy. Liquor will probably be next and then a new stimulus bill to support AA.