Posted on 02/05/2009 4:43:03 PM PST by markomalley
Marijuana has been in the news lately thanks to that infamous photo of Olympic swimming champ Michael Phelps puffing on a bong.
But imagine Phelps had been smoking a joint instead. It turns out he would have been contributing to the national coffers. There is a small federal tax on rolling papers and it is about to get bigger.
I came upon that bit of trivia while researching the children's health insurance bill that passed Congress yesterday and was promptly signed by President Obama. The new program will be partially funded by big increases in smoking taxes. That includes taxes on cigarettes, cigars and rolling papers.
The prospect of Uncle Sam hitting Cheech and Chong up for change amused me greatly. I couldn't get them on the phone, so instead I called Allen St. Pierre at the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana in Washington.
(Excerpt) Read more at blog.nj.com ...
The only way I've ever heard this is the power to tax is the power to destroy. I don't think that the power to tax ever creates anything, except for maybe a new bureaucracy.
Some of us do, but I'm not gonna hold my breath (no pun intended). After all, look @ who he chose to be his running mate: that blatant Drug Warrior CFR-member Joe Biden. He is one of the architects of the Drug War back in the 1970's, if I remember correctly. Coming from Delaware, Biden is beholden to the pharmaceutical / oil companies, & Delaware has one of the most draconian anti-marijuana laws in the nation.
“That includes taxes on cigarettes, cigars and rolling papers.”
The stoners can switch to bongs and pipes if times get too rough.
must be why all the Libertarians voted for him...
Marijuana was never regulated much in the United States until we reached the 1900's, and then just like any other law/regulation; over time lawmakers passed more and more punishments, restrictions, etc... for the sake of our "children".
I have no hopes for Obama. He is not going to do anything but continue the unconstitutional status qua of taking away ones freedom.
It's obvious Obama's talk of working for US was all non-sense, look at his hypocritical stances on his cabinet nominees involving taxes. This is going to be another: he can now do whatever drugs he wants to without punishment, and all of the rest of us will continue to be punished severely.
Libertarians likely voted 3rd party.
Anyone who did not vote for McCain can be thanked for allowing Obama to get into office. Great job ...
Nope, the LP had its own candidate. I personally voted for Pastor Chuck Baldwin of the Constitution Party.
So what are conservatives to do? March in lock step with the likes of McPain and Grahmnesty? How about you Republicans start blaming yourselves for letting the GRAND OLD PARTY become a joke. I am not a Republican and I will never vote for a RHINO. I am however a conservative and will continue to act and vote as one. If it makes you feel better to blame the likes of me for losing have at it. For all of you lock steppers out there keep up the bad work and you are sure to see the same results again. I suggest we not anoint anyone (Palin) and let the debate begin. If I am expected to vote for Palin just because you tell me to she will lose too. She is a great speaker, intelligent and qualified so let her sell herself instead of you and the like shoving her down my throat like McPain.
Libertarians were good in taking votes away from congressional Republicans, guaranteeing a Democrat majority in 2006.
That's really all they're good for, except, perhaps, giving refuge to anti-Semites, child molestors, hard and not so hard drug users; etc.
At least one of them took some silver solution and turned himself blue. He still managed to take enough votes away from the Republican to put a Democrat in power.
The Left uses the same excuse against the Greenies that you do the Libertarians....saying that if they had only voted for Gore instead of Nader, George Bush would never have become President.
Edith Ephron warned that the termite left has infiltrated the Libertarian party.
No need for the insults. You’re beginning to sound like the left-wing Bush haters when using such language. But I know good & well that, to Libertarians, the free market, private property rights, & individual freedom are the foundation of their political philosophy, rather than having “a few free market bounces” as you suggest. I guess you know very little about Libertarians after all, don’t you? John Stossel is no hippie...& neither are Dr. Walter Williams, Rep. / Dr. Ron Paul, Milton Friedman, Harry Browne, etc.
Dooood! Where’s my birth certificate?
The Libertarian movement was so horrid that Objectivist Peter Schwartz did a landmark article blowing the supporters of the Soviet Union, child molestation, the PLO; etc., out of the water.
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