I have to laugh at the talk of cigarettes. States say they raise cigarette taxes to discourage smoking, yet, those states would have big holes in their budgets if everyone did quit smoking.
cigarette taxes....
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When the big confiscation of money from the tobacco giants brought a fortune to the states “for health” they all spent it to try to balance their regular overall budgets.
You can never trust a liberal government to handle money. They can’t help themselves from stealing shamelessly and then demanding more.
“I have to laugh at the talk of cigarettes. States say they raise cigarette taxes to discourage smoking, yet, those states would have big holes in their budgets if everyone did quit smoking.”
And in the mean time, taxes on cigarette are getting to the point where organized crime is getting involved in smuggling. Cigarette wars in the streets.
The state of Michigan's settlement against the tobacco industry in 1998 was $280 million per year for the next 26 years as compensation for past "damages" incurred through Medicaid and other state medical welfare payments to individuals with smoking-related illnesses......LOL!
Not one fricking cent went to those agencies..........!
As for the attorneys representing the state of Michigan, they received tens of millions of dollars for doing nothing because they simply used all information gathered by a southern attorney who started the first lawsuits against big tobacco.....
It was nothing but a shake down scam that the Mafia was accused of and arrested for.........