Posted on 10/16/2002 9:06:13 PM PDT by greydog
Those of you who buy cigarettes on the Internet are about to be targeted by states that claim to want you to stop smoking, but secretly want to reap obscene profits from your addiction. Yes, the federal Jenkins Act will be invoked to stop you from avoiding state taxes by buying your cancer sticks online.
The General Accounting Office looked at 147 websites that sell cigarettes, and came to a startling conclusion: none of them complied with rules requiring them to track who purchases the smokes. Now, I've long said that it's your duty to smoke – because these people who say how evil it is, always talk about how many great, socialist programs they're going to fund off your addiction. They give the money to schools, which says to me, "We have to smoke, for the sake of our children."
The United Nations dares not enforce one resolution Saddam Hussein has broken, yet these same Eurocrats, these same linguini-spined cowards, are meeting to wipe out cigarette smuggling worldwide even as you read this! While the GAO is mobilizing trying to find out a way to collect the billion-and-a-half dollars lost in smuggled cigarette revenue annually, the UN is doing the same. The World Health Organization - which suppressed its own study which found that second hand smoke was harmless - is on board too.
If smoking is so bad, why not just ban it? If it will kill you and anyone within 20 miles of you, shouldn't you just ban it completely? We don't tax murder, do we? No. Yet they say that we are talking as much as $1.5 billion in revenue "losses" to states, and when people stop smoking, cities like New York complain about the lost revenue - they never rejoice.
An international tobacco-control treaty aiming to limit the sale, promotion and smuggling of cigarettes has entered a "crucial stage." Negotiators from 190 countries are meeting in Geneva as we speak to hammer out the final details of a global treaty designed to curb smoking. So is this crusade about stopping people from smoking or about raising money? Clearly it's about the cash. I mean, the world is under attack from terrorists, and the world bureaucrats are focused on tobacco!
Thats funny....... :-}
I brew my own beer for similar reasons, not to mention its a lot better tasting.
Bulk tobacco is generally taxed as a percentage of the wholesale price, which is why it is so much lower than the cigarette taxes which are based per pack.
And if anyone is buying Bugler tobacco you are also paying into the Master Settlement agreement - because it is produced by Brown and Williamson.
I make my own as well, have been for just about 3 years and estimated that we have cost the state of Delaware alone over $1500 in taxes and MSA payments in each of those years.
Thanks, Max.
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