The ten cent resolution, that one thin (not so thin) dime New Hampshire Republicans cut off the tobacco tax two years ago, expires shortly. At the time it 
was proposed and passed the left was so insane with outrage that you’d have thought Republicans were selling guns to foreign drug lords across the border who were killing agents of the federal government and innocent civilians as well. But some Democrat president was the one who’d done that so there was no moral call to war; New Hampshire Democrats were as quiet as church mice. (Regular Church mice, the social justice Church mice are noisy sums-o-beeches–and likely protected by a stimulus grant through the EPA.) But that ten cent tax? That was a crime against humanity.
But it was probably doomed from the start.
As a step toward another reduction it could have achieved its ultimate goal but at just ten cents it was always too thin, never allowed a long enough run. Ten cents in this economy doesn’t even cover the rising cost of fuel to get from A to A+1 let alone to B or C and back to A to make it worth the trip. So as much as I (among others) wanted to see it succeed it likely never could. Not because lowering the tax wouldn’t work but because the hill it had to climb was too steep.
So the same Democrats who can ignore a president of their own hue whose policies kill people against their will must seize on an insufficient tax cut to justify a tax increase. There is some moral imperative to ‘need’ the revenue, and plucking at any heart-string to get it will suffice. So the New Hampshire House just passed a bill to tack on another 0.20 cents a pack.
This ‘revenue’ will be extracted from predominantly middle and lower income people, but the left has an excuse. They think the cost will deter teenagers from picking up the habit. That is a dreamy notion given that most teens who smoke probably either have parents who smoke or friends who wield something more powerful than the “cost per-pack” to jump start the habit–peer pressure. I’m surprised some left-wing Mary-Poppins has not yet found a way to define that as bullying so they could bring the full weight of the nanny-state to bear on the problem of teenage smoking. “Off with their Butts!”
Butt they need the revenue…
I’ve asked repeatedly in the past, if teenagers stop smoking, when the old smokers die off, what happens to that revenue we so desperately needed in the first place? It dies with them. At which point the tax and spend cave dwellers pick up their spears (coated with self-righteousness) and shuffle off onto the progressive plantation to find fresh game to harvest, if there is any left; heart shaped harps in tow, as they seek revenue meat to feed to their insatiable government gods.
It is all a game to them.
In the long run it is not about the dime, or two dimes, it’s about the idea. The progressives believe first, above all things, that Government must always grow, even if it means you have to shrink. If you do not take a stand for the dimes, you will lose them and the dollars that follow.
You are reading “New Hampshire House Votes to Raise Tobacco Taxes” by Steve Mac Donald originally posted at GraniteGrok.com (Home)
Steve has been recognized as the Americans For Prosperity Blogger of the month for December 2012
