Posted on 07/14/2009 4:15:36 AM PDT by KitJ
Mail Order Tobacco And the Global War On Terror
The good news is that the Democrat-controlled Congress is finally taking the fight to Hamas, Hezballah and Al Qaeda! In a blow sure to bring these terrorist groups to their knees, the House overwhelmingly, yet quietly, passed H.R. 1676 on the 21st of May. This bill was sent to the Senate, where it is also likely to pass. There it is known as the “Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking Act of 2009” – that’s ‘PACT’ for short.
The .pdf for this bill is here
It’s a relatively small bill, at only 74 pages, but I’ll capture some of the important parts of it for you. It is described as, “A bill, ‘To prevent tobacco smuggling, to ensure the collection of all tobacco taxes, and for other purposes.’ (p.1)
On page 2 it asserts that, “Hezbollah, Hamas, al Qaeda, and other terrorist organizations have profited from trafficking in illegal cigarettes or counterfeit cigarette tax stamps; terrorist involvement in illicit cigarette trafficking will continue to grow because of the large profits such organizations can earn.”
It seems our Representatives are concerned that these terrorist organizations are not paying taxes on tobacco products. This bill includes cigarettes, loose tobacco (roll-your-own) and all smokeless tobacco products, but specifically exempts cigars.
This bill establishes a BATFE “Tobacco Intelligence Center” (p.72) which will coordinate enforcement activities with Law Enforcement and Revenue agencies throughout the country, and maintain a national database of tobacco vendors and customers. What will they be enforcing?
- Carriers such as FedEx, UPS, DHL, must see government issued photo ID of recipient. (p.15) This would require folks to present more identification to make a purchase of tobacco than is required to VOTE in many areas. Why do the Dems see no problem with requiring government-issued ID to buy chew or smokes, but adamantly oppose voter ID?
- Customers (the person who orders and who receives) must have birthdate, address and full name checked via "data from government sources, that are regularly used by government and businesses for the purpose of age and identity verification and authentication." (p.15) Is this a national tobacco-user database?
- Vendors must keep records of sale (address, name, age, products) for four years, subject to inspection by State tax officials, State Attorneys General, US Attorney General; local, state and federal law enforcement officers. (p.16)
- Vendors Cannot deliver to customer until all local, state and federal taxes are paid. (p.17) How will they verify this?
- Vendors must provide the Attorney General with all addresses they have operated from, business names, phone numbers, websites, email, & any other information the Attorney General directs. (p.18)
- The Attorney General can provide this information to– state and federal officials, shipping companies, post office, or anyone who can help enforce provisions. (p.20)
- Vendors must update this information quarterly. (p.20) No hassle there…
- The vendor/customer database is ‘confidential’ but can be shared with any government official or delivery person. (p.23)
- Delivery services are not required to check packages for tobacco, but not prohibited either – they can levy fees associated with extra delivery costs – customer is obliged to pay as a ‘disincentive’ (p.27)
- Delivery services must turn over suspect packages to local, state or federal LEOs. (p.27)
- What are the penalties? – 3 years in the cooler – (p.37) and $5,000 – (p.38)
- Treasury gets 50% of fines, DoJ gets the other half (p.43) to pay for enforcement of this law.
- Makes cigarettes, loose tobacco and smokeless tobacco non-mailable. Cigars are okay. (p.46) So much for mailing a carton of smokes to a troop in the field once DoD bans smoking in the military...
- The penalty for mailing unauthorized tobacco? – 1 year. (p.61)
- Creates a government (BATFE) computer database to track all non-face-to-face sales. (p.72)
- How much is being appropriated? A little over $2million/year, plus fines collected. (p.72)
Nothing at all to do with terrorism... everything to do with taxation... which is, um, terrorism.
Hey, it’s the War On Terror. What? You don’t love your country?
Insanity. I don’t smoke any longer but when I did and NJ raised taxes the carton cost went over $60, I found other ways to get them. I don’t figure I’m alone in that.
If someone wants cheap smokes they usually get a relative in a less taxed state to send them some, or buy it themselves out of state. They don’t call up the local chapter of al-Qaeda.
Power grabs are only cool when there’s an R next to your name. Don’t you know anything?
What about all the gasoline we will have to import because of their cap and tax b.s.? I wish the idiots in Congress would wander off and never return.
I’m marking this down as the day somebody finally gets it. Thank you, it almost restores a little faith.
Even then, the 'revenuers' were searching for loads of untaxed smokes.
This is just the SOS wrapped in a thin veneer of anti-terrorism to sell it with people who might otherwise resent the added bonus of being put in a database of smokers.
I wonder how many people will be suckered by this, especially after the powers which were assumed by the government under the "Patriot Act" which remain for the Obamites to abuse.
It’s the Tabacco Black Market Creation and Criminal Organization Funding Act of 2009.
If the intent was to stop the terrorist, they would put the terrorist in jail when they convicted them of stealing and amuggligling the cigarettes. What do they do? They put them on federal probation, even when they are caught doing it again while still on probation for the first offense.
http://pibillwarner.wordpress.com/2009/06/16/
they will do this to tobacco...a cash American crop...and source of revenue to many states...BEFORE they ever think of doing this to Cocaine/Meth....anothe rFINE example of how this government treats its taxpayers...and they wonder why there’s less of ‘em...
Well, there went the peasant vote for Democrats. :-)
Pardon the uninvited ping - I culled you from other tobacco and tax threads - you need to see the next round waiting passage in the Senate.
I loath smoking but this like the SS of tobacco.
Am I the only one who sees a business opportunity in an online store that sells products that help people grow their own tobacco and or also provides rolling products?
The indians grew and rolled their own...
Your thoughts?
Holy crap!
:-)
This is to help liberal states with cigarette taxes of 500% of the actual product price like NY.
Here he is!
I already switched to little cigars. Wonder if that will be ok. If so I could see a lot of smokers doing that.
I’m in Iraq at the moment, so I’m not growing anything. ;)
I’m thinking I have a perfect, south facing bay window where I could get a couple plants growing in the spring after I get back.
I’d just like to try it. I’m really not much of a tobacco user, but I AM concerned with yet another ‘national database’ of citizens AND more onerous record-keeping requirements for small business owners.
Not to mention the federal bureaucracy that will be built around an army of inspectors and rev’nooers...
Well, I guess its time to buy some seeds and start growing our own on the back acre.
Time for tobacco cos. to set up in Haiti, Dom.Rep. etc. and then refuse to ship any of their products into U.S. Let the libs howl.
Depending on your growing area, it may be more difficult that you first imagine ....but if you had the time and land, might be an interesting experiment.
Sounds like a goor way to get a lot of libs in the slammer, eh.
Right now, you can grow tobacco and sell whole leaves without any tax. I’ve thought often that I ought to get some cheap grinders built and some of those little filling machines and sell whole leaf and a kit. Tobacco is fairly easy to grow but curing it correctly is the trick.
“There’s no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren’t enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What’s there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced nor objectively interpreted and you create a nation of law-breakers.”
Quote by: Ayn Rand
(1905-1982) Author
Source: “Atlas Shrugged”, Part II, Chapter 3
They would love to outlaw cigarettes, but they make so much money off the taxes of them that they wont.
I wonder what they will tax next when the Goose that lays this Golden egg dies.
Exactly.
This and no other is the root from which a tyrant springs; when he first appears he is a protector. - Plato
Enforcement is going to be a problem. If they act like the TSA and check all establishments equally, they will be looking for a needle in a haystack. If they act sensibly and target Muslim-owned establishments, they will get sued by the ACLU for profiling and revert to the former.
The main target of this bill is legitimate Native American-owned business on Indian Reservations who use the tobacco trade as one of a number of legitimate enterprises to ensure their people are gainfully employed rather than sitting around waiting for their next government check to keep them drunk and voting Democrat.
Thanks for the ping.
My first experiment in growing tobacco has been educational. Here in hot, dry, north Texas, it’s growing very well as long as I water it from time to time. A few of those 4-inch-long, lime green caterpillars attacked for a while.
As to curing the crop, that’ll be a bit tricky in such a dry climate. But I have a couple years’ stockpile of rolling tobacco (purchased before the tyrants’ latest extortion in April) so that should give me time to perfect the process.
It’s a rotten government that creates a problem by theft-via-tax, then rides to the rescue with this sort of “solution”. (More of their patented “break it, fix it” tyranny.)
Bet I have to show my complete birth certificate to get my cigarettes soon, but Obama doesn’t have to show one to take office!
This reads like something out of The Onion; regrettably, it’s on the level. They are effectively attempting to make the use of tobacco illegal - except, of course, for the big spenders and high rollers who smoke cigars. Too much political clout there.
This country is rapidly heading in a direction which would have horrified even such as Kafka, but which Josef Stalin would have recognized and applauded.
Apparently the idiots in congress have failed to take into account the tax revenues which will be lost with this measure, as more and more people simply quit usuing tobacco products.
One can almost see them writhing with indecision: “Do we love it better to make the population miserable, tighten our Nanny State Controls on everyone, and get into everyone’s faces, even if we lose massive amounts of revenue in setting up yet more layers of bureaucracy and losing tax revenues; or do we love it better taking in the tax revenues on tobacco products with which we purchase the votes of a corrupt nation? No, gotta be the first alternative; it’s got that extra added fillip of pleasure in driving a recessionary economy even further into the tank!”
One is merely left to wonder - are these people technically morons or are they more properly defined as insane?
They are much less greedy than our federal, state and local governments.
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