Nanny State Update: Regulating Lassie and Banning Baked Goods

Cost of Government Center ^ | 2012-05-10 | [Staff]

[92nina]

...New York Nanny Staters Attack a Loophole: Following the Nanny in chief’s cigarette tax hike, there’s more cigarette tax madness, from New York no less. Despite his abysmal record as Mayor Nanny, this isn’t a Michael Bloomberg driven tobacco tax. Nanny State lawmakers and advocates in Syracuse are pushing New York state to increase taxes on loose tobacco—the kind you use to roll your own cigarettes. Facing Obama and New York State’s high cigarette taxes, people are switching to self-rolled cigarettes and pipe tobacco. This loophole is primed for Nanny State closure because it takes away potential tax revenue from the government. In defense of the potential tax hikes, one Nanny Stater claimed, “We know cigarettes contribute to so many terrible diseases…we don't want to see all the progress that we've made in being able to raise these taxes to go backward.”

The Nanny State Wants to Force You to Quit Smoking: Not to be outdone by New York, Illinois—after failing to push its tobacco tax across the finish line last year—is considering a $1 per pack tax hike. Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn hopes the tax increase willboth“help close a $2.7 billion Medicaid shortfall” and give people, “The final push they need to quit.” Given the $83 billion of unfunded liabilities the Land of Lincoln is holding the birthplace of Honest Abe might want to be a little more honest about its real budget problem – rampant overspending and unreasonable promises will never be solved by increasing taxes – much less those that target lower-income earners the most

DC Council Member Wants to Ruin Your Good Time: DC Council Member Jim Graham has proposed a 6 cent tax increase on alcohol sales in bars, rather than opening the bars an hour longeras had been previously proposed...

[92nina]

After a week off, it’s an extra-large edition of the Nanny State update including bans on retrieving for golden retrievers, baking goods for bake sales, and hunting for treasure hunters...

Take this article and others I found to the fight to the Libs on their own turf; put the Left on the defensive at Reddit and in Stumbleupon and Delicious