Posted on 03/18/2012 6:01:05 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Nobody mentioned tobacco last week when the U.S. Senate adopted an amendment to the $109 billion federal highway bill.
But tucked into the 5,600-word amendment to provide aid for rural schools was a single paragraph that would settle a two-year-old fight between Big Tobacco and a small Ohio company that builds a do-it-yourself machine that allows smokers to get their cigarettes a lot cheaper.
The amendment would reclassify tobacco shops that offer the machines as “tobacco manufacturers,” imposing on them new regulations and higher taxes, and it opens a window into the ways of Washington, where the powerful and the connected can sometimes win even before the opposition knows the game is underway.
“This is catastrophic,” was the response of Phil Accordino, whose tiny company builds the roll-your-own cigarette machines in Girard, Ohio, when he heard of the Senate action. Word arrived in Ohio after the amendment had already been approved on a bipartisan vote.
Officials with the tobacco companies, and allies who include some public health advocates, counter that they’ve been trying to crack down on ultra cheap and unregulated cigarettes, which they contend skirt tax and health laws.
Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), who sponsored the Secure Rural Schools amendment, said that the $346 million program supports schools and road projects in Montana and elsewhere. He said the $97 million tobacco provision helps provide “critical funding” for the program by closing a loophole that some smokers have been using to avoid taxes.
Enjoying a tax loophole
“Roll-your-own cigarette machines take advantage of an unintended tax loophole, and that isn’t right, so this offset closes it,” he said in a statement.
But Accordino says the case illustrates how corporate America can quietly use its political influence in Washington to secure wins on the business battlefield.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
“The increase on pipe tobacco is next.”
Harry Reid will get that for you somehow.
Freeloading 99%ers are always looking for ‘somebody else’ to pay for their government freebies.
You used to be amusing, now your just an annoying gnat(zie) buzzing around in the business of others and just like the rest of that species deserve nothing more than swatting.
Don’t cry. You’ll be OK.
Believe me, I’m not the one doing the crying, nor will I ever be. Silly wabbit..............
It is also legal to make your own lemonade, but it is illegal to sell it or allow anyone else to consume it, so be careful.
Why is this not a "taking"?
I'm going to be abusive to jerks that try to take basic freedoms that have been here since the Mayflower landed. ;)
Would you care for a home-made beer? I'd swap a few for a pound of backstrap.
/johnny
Who said I was addicted to tobacco. I don’t smoke, smartass. I just support smoker freedom.
And you pimp nanny statism. I prefer the former.
Thanks for the ping!
Why are you on this forum? It’s not the place for you!
Are you STILL here, shocked you haven’t been banned yet. How do you get so abusive and avoid being banned??
It's NONE of my damn business, nor is it any anti-tobacco fanatic's, either.
Thanks Tolerance Sucks Rocks.
I am 100% against this, but I wish these articles would be more clear as to the type of machines. I have been discussing this with my smoke shop owner and he believes that it is only for the “mass producers” located in the smoke shops and NOT for the RYO machines that we use in our homes.
That said, I am sure it is just a matter of time before they hit our home machines. Stock up now!
Your smoke shop owner is correct. This has been happening piecemeal in various places and it is the usual suspects (namely Philip Morris) that are pushing this to force these small smoke shops to be labelled manufacturers for taxation purposes.
Do you know if the ammendment discussed in this article named a specific brand of machine or did they name a machine capacity?
It’d be interesting....If it is the latter, I can see many ways to overcome that little hurdle. If the former, then I could see a lawsuit coming...
Nice to see you FRiend. To bad it is on these types of threads with certain liberty stealing FReepers.
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