Democrats are curious creatures. Remember when cigarette taxes couldn’t be lowered because we had to have that revenue? Crisis! Economic collapse! Well, this week Democrats are giving up tobacco revenue to make smoking illegal.
Related: Was the Democrats New Vaping Tax Supposed to Help Big Tobacco?
We should be ready for it, yes? I mean, I’ve been asking Democrats for years, what’s the plan? If we need the tax money from where will the lost revenue come once you achieve your goal of using tax policy to end smoking?
The simple answer is we raise taxes someplace else. Anywhere will work. And they will. The legislature wants to make selling tobacco to anyone under 21 illegal.
The Democrats who control the Senate Commerce Committee say it’s time make 21 the legal age to buy tobacco. The 3 to 2 party line committee vote ensures the tobacco age debate will restart when the full legislature returns to Concord in January. The commitee’s (sp) Democrats voted in favor of the bill, the Republicans against.
NHPR quotes Democrat Senate president Donna Soucy as saying it’s something the tobacco companies want. So, Donna Soucy is a tobacco company stooge? Are they writing a check to cover the lost revenue? Lord knows they’ve been writing checks to everyone for everything for years. Why not this? You are, after all, claiming it is what they want.
Probably to get you off their back.
I have bad news for Big Tobacco. That won’t work. The moment you give Democrats anything they want, it is perceived as a sign of weakness. You will forever be badgered on every point or order under threat of constant disorder until you cave.
A lesson the folks at Chick-fil-A are about to learn the hard way. They caved on donations to certain Christian groups to appease the Gaystapo.
That’s like the first bathroom break after you’ve been drinking for a few hours. From that point on, every beer equals another trip to the bathroom. If it’s a #woke establishment, there’s no telling who you might find in there, especially in the ladies’ room.
Another social innovation courtesy of the left.
And so it will be with tobacco if the governor signs this bill into law. I have no doubt the Demcorat majority will pass this bill in both chambers. Sustaining a veto is another matter. Not that any of it matters.
Twenty-one is a meaningless arbitrary age. Banning tobacco sales in NH means members of the military can’t buy off base until they are twenty-one. It’s stupid. But stupid is what Democrats do. And thanks to Obamacare we’ve nailed down the next stupid, arbitrary age. Twenty-six. It’s already decided.
They can start working toward that random chronological benchmark next session.
As for the revenue, any one of dozens of new or increased taxes will come to the table (again) with a new justification for passage. We need to replace the tobacco tax revenue we lost when we banned smoking for anyone under twenty-one.
And the band keeps playing…
