Could not have said it better myself. Although I would like to see the price of a six pack, big mac etc if they were taxed as heavily as smokes.

Applying the same "voluntary tax" standard, should state legislatures ratchet up taxes on junk food, luxury lattes, alcohol, movie tickets for violent or graphic films?

Use the same logic for taxing abortion. After all, it was "voluntary" that you had sex (exceptions in the tax for rape/incest))

Perhaps lawmakers don't recognize their own reliance on tobacco-generated revenue. Maybe smoke got in their eyes.

The smoke combined with the nifty mirror show that the governments are using is quite the display in unlogical logic.

It's always about the money.

Lying 'rat bastards. bttt

I think the anti-smoker vendetta has gone too far, but the people who manufacture and distribute tobacco products are reprehensible. The flack who authored this article will be judged one day by God, and I don't envy him.

Payne is executive vice president of external affairs for R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.

The powers that be will ignore this bit of truth because, after all the author is employed by "Big Tobacco".

You think the author will go to hell because he wrote an article stating the plain truth that goobermint makes more off tobacco than the tobacco companies or the retailers?

I don't comprehend that line of thinking.

"It's a voluntary tax," says the politician. If you don't want to pay the tax, quit smoking, and everyone will benefit.

Politicians live in a different universe...

To them all taxes are voluntary.
Bothered by income tax? Quit working...

Is it any wonder that they are generally regarded arguably just below child molesters?

From what I see, cancer wards profit the most!

But, keep smoking if you want to.

INDIANA SMOKERS' CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE STATE ECONOMY - 2001

CALIFORNIA SMOKERS' CONTRIBUTION TO THE STATE ECONOMY - 2001

MICHIGAN SMOKERS' CONTRIBUTION TO THE STATE ECONOMY - 2001

ILLINOIS SMOKERS’ CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE STATE ECONOMY - 2001

MASSACHUSETTS SMOKERS' CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE STATE ECONOMY-2001

DELAWARE SMOKERS' CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE STATE ECOMOMY -2001

NEW YORK CITY SMOKERS' CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE STATE ECOMOMY -2001

RHODE ISLAND SMOKERS' CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE STATE ECONOMY 2001

TEXAS SMOKERS' CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE STATE ECONOMY - 2001 PENNSYLVANIA SMOKERS' CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE STATE ECONOMY - 2001

MISSOURI SMOKERS' CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE STATE ECONOMY - 2001

LOUISIANA SMOKERS' CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE STATE ECONOMY - 2001

HAWAII SMOKERS' CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE STATE ECONOMY - 2001

TENNESSEE SMOKERS' CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE STATE ECONOMY - 2001

OREGON SMOKERS' CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE STATE ECONOMY - 2001

NEW JERSEY SMOKERS' CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE STATE ECONOMY - 2001

INDIANA SMOKERS' CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE STATE ECONOMY - 2001

ARKANSAS SMOKERS' CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE STATE ECONOMY - 2001

GEORGIA SMOKERS' CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE STATE ECONOMY - 2001

MISSISSIPPI SMOKERS' CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE STATE ECONOMY - 2001

MONTANA SMOKERS' CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE STATE ECONOMY - 2001

SOUTH CAROLINA SMOKERS' CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE STATE ECONOMY - 2001

WEST VIRGINIA SMOKERS' CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE STATE ECONOMY - 2001

KENTUCKY SMOKERS'CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE STATE ECONOMY - 2002

The government is "tax profiling" - singling out those least capable of paying and taxing them at usurious rates. Smokers have become the serfs of the governments' feudal funding system.

"It's a voluntary tax," says the politician. If you don't want to pay the tax, quit smoking, and everyone will benefit. Were these the same politicians who have characterized smoking as addictive - some saying as addictive as heroin?

"We'll spend the extra money on tobacco control," says the politician.

And we just keep re-electing these perverts into office! How quickly they forget how they got there!

I'm going to take exception to the title. "Profit" implies some involvement in the production, sale, or marketing, ie some kind of productive work. "Benefits" would be more appropriate, IMHO.

God will decide whether he goes to Hell. I'm thankful I don't walk in his shoes.

I wish every smoker in the US would start buying their cigarettes from Reservations, or off the Internet, or start rolling your own.  Then, and only then, can we ALL thumb our nose at the state politicians!  Let them pull the money out of someplace else! heh!

 
and

Smokers United

But, keep smoking if you want to.

Thanks, Narrow Mind. We don't mind if we DO!

The flack who authored this article will be judged one day by God, and I don't envy him.

I believe the Good Lord cares more about what comes OUT of us then what goes in! If He did, there would be a lot of obese people on diets in a BIG hurry.