Posted on 03/20/2002 5:50:27 AM PST by Stand Watch Listen
The utter wickedness of the attack on the tobacco industry, the naked grab for a new stream of funding by the states that banded together, claiming that they wanted to reduce the health impacts of smoking in order to offset the costs of Medicare for those affected by the habit, is being exposed for the sham it always was.
It turns out, according to a survey by the Investor Responsibility Research Center, that many of the states that received billions of dollars in the national tobacco settlement, not only are not investing much in campaigns to reduce smoking, but are actually investing in tobacco industry stocks!
The settlement created the "largest new revenue streams in state history" according to the IRRC, insuring that 46 states would receive $206 billion from tobacco companies over the next 25 years as the supposed "reimbursement" for the tobacco-related medical expenses of the Medicare program. Presumably, if you could get fewer people to smoke, that would be a good thing, reducing those expenses, but the reality is that less smoking means less state revenue.
A new study from the Council of State Governments suggests that falling cigarette consumption will result in a 20 percent loss of the income projected. Through 2010, states will get $14 billion less from Big Tobacco. That's the last thing they want!
The settlement was never about getting people to smoke less. It was nothing more than an extortion scheme by the states and the people who end up paying the bill are those who, by their own free choice, want to smoke. It's not about healthier people. It was and is about the MONEY.
If they truly wanted healthier people, the states would have banned tobacco use, just as this nation once banned alcohol, but banning things people want as a lifestyle choice is idiotic. The result of Prohibition was the creation of organized crime syndicates because people wanted to drink. And people want to smoke. Just as people can and do choose to stop smoking.
So, governments, having generally overspent their taxpayer's money, simply impose new taxes. In New Jersey, the Governor is contemplating a $1.30 per pack tax! In New York, the tax per pack is $1.50, in Washington it's $1.45, in Connecticut, it's $1.10. And it's all obscene!
Government as a huge extortion racket is, in too many cases, what government has become. Everything requires a license, registration, a waiting period, certification, inspections, and on, and on, and on. This is supposed to be a nation where we have personal liberty, but so long as we are taxed for our free choice of what we want to consume, the smoking, drinking or eating habits we want to pursue, that concept is meaningless.
The one thing the federal government and the States have never contemplated is actually spending less; reducing their budgets so they are not dependent on tobacco industry extortion schemes. This constant need to spend more explains why we are seeing more and more States accepting gambling revenues. Once it was only Nevada. Then it was Nevada and New Jersey. Now gambling will go nationwide because people want to gamble. The income stream for the States is irresistible.
Granted the States need income to function, to provide the services needed by their citizens, but deliberately punishing segments of their population for lighting up a cigarette is as un-American as you can get. In the end, it is all a lie and it is a lie whose purpose is to get money.
Alan Caruba writes a weekly column, "Warning Signs", posted on the Internet site of The National Anxiety Center.
Alan Caruba
This is the most important line in the entire article...
No one knows what freedom is anymore...
It is no longer taught, certainly no longer practiced, and every move that the government makes is to continualy reduce what little freedom individuals have left...
The sheep are slaves...
Whether or not you sheep realize that you are slaves is irrelevent to the reality that you are...
May you one day become aware of the chains that hang around your conscious neck...
I find it hard to believe that organized crime syndicates did not exist before 1920-ish. Especially since I've read reports of organized crime being involved in loan sharking, gambling, organized labor and prostitution all the way back to the mid 1800s for sure and probably earlier.
House anti-terror bill would tap tobacco money
Source:Star Tribune; Published:March 19, 2002;
Author: Conrad deFiebreNRA Too Strong? So Was Big Tobacco
Source: Million Mom March;Published: March 15, 2002;
Author:Dick DahlNew attacks against Big Tobacco
Source: WorldNetDaily.com; Published:March 15, 2002;
Author:Jon DoughertyStates Catch More Heat for Handling of Tobacco Settlements
Source: CNSNews;Published: MArch 14, 2002;
Author: Matt PyeattTobacco-Settlement Payoff Shrinking
Source:Washinton PapapapostStates Investing Their Tobacco Settlements In Tobacco Stocks
Source: CNSNews.com; Published: March 12, 2002;
Author: Matt PyeattTobacco settlement and conflicting goals
Source: TownHall.com; Published: March 12, 2002;
Author: Bruce BartlettUN Study Calls For Higher Tobacco Taxes
Source: CNSNews.com; Published: February 28, 2002;
Author: Jim BurnsA Sign of Things to Come? Expanding the Tobacco Industry Lawsuits Against All Industry
Source: Capitalism Magazine; Published:February 18, 2002;
Author: Ralph R. ReilandAN INSIDER'S ACCOUNT OF TOBACCO CONTROL IN CANADA
Source: FORCES Canada; Published: February 14, 2002;Author: Luc Martial
Correct me if I am wrong, I am thinking you are talking about smokers being slaves to tobacco, if that be the case, I would like to remind you that it isn't just smoking.
The powers that be, are seriously thinking about taxing junk food....... you see, they are running out of smokers, and has to start feeding their dependency from new sinners....... THE OBESE. You may ask, who comes next....... maybe you. ?
Actually, no, I'm talking about conscious humans being slaves to the government that controls most of your life, extorts money from you by force and fraud, and gives you nothing in return except creating problems where none previously existed...
Which naturally, needs to be solved by more government...
The result is you have less and less freedom...
The powers that be, are seriously thinking about taxing junk food....... you see, they are running out of smokers, and has to start feeding their dependency from new sinners....... THE OBESE. You may ask, who comes next....... maybe you. ?
You are correct...
Subject on talk radio the other day "FAT TAX," you should have heard the screams.
My point here however,is that the Colorado Dept. of Health in 1995 was pushing an initiative for a $0.50 tax on a pack of cigarettes. My fellow employees were rubbing their greedy little hands together, assuming that they would get nice salary raises.
At the time I left Colorado, there were at least three law suits against the health dept. because they had been pushing this initiative on government time, which we all know is against the law. Wish I knew how it all turned out as I left Colorado six years ago.
Ah, but scholar, in the "fight against the merchants of death" [gag, barf] perversion and corruption of the law is not only expected, it's consciously sought. Much like the People's Republik of Kalifornia's Families First Commission, aka Rob Reiner's Jackpot, which used government employees to defeat Prop 10. Reiner had the balls to stand up in a meeting and scream at Ned Roscoe, "You're trying to steal my money!" For some reason THAT wasn't reported in the press and the effort to rescind Prop 10 fell, along with any hope of fairness and justice for California smokers.
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