Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Bully in the House

Can you imagine if we were suddenly to announce that we were going to make up the deficit by taxing tampons? Or activator? How about canes? A suburb living tax, A wheel chair tax? Or any other item that is specific to a targeted group of people. There would be outrage.

Not a peep though when the federal tax on cigarettes was passed.
Bleeding the undesirables, who cant defend themselves.

Picking on the weak and disenfranchised.

Make no mistake there is a bully in the house....and I hate bullies.

Even though I am not smoking this pisses me off as an American with a sense of justice and freedom. It is wrong, they lied it will not be used for health care. Remember when Minnesota won billions in the tobacco settlement to cover the supposedly large cost of smoking bore by the state?

Where did the money go? What dollar amount went to easing health care costs? .......0

The money was sold as bonds to investors to cover budget shortfalls due to the Governers policy of not raises taxes in line with spending.

Our government is using two tactics to discriminate against a particular group of people...playing on the fears that people have about rising health care costs and demonizing cigarettes.

Even if you don't smoke it is wrong...tampons could be next.

4 comments:

Brianinmpls said...

I personally would love to see a 50% increase in the tax on communion wafers.

Sornie said...

WHy not just communion wafers? How about priest collars? That might wipe the smug look off those priests.

Rocketstar said...

You mean remove the tax exempt status from Church's, yes!

The old thinking was that smoking created health care costs but NOW, obesity is quickly outpacing smoking as our biggest health concern, how about taxing junk food? I say yes.

Jenn'fer said...

I agreee Brian, Regressive taxes are definitely bad policy excpet for the wealthy - and Rocket - yes, I think we should try a sin tax.... you know, like the seven deadly? I woder if it would create a level playing field...
Lust: Lingerie, prostitution, porn (NY Gov is proposing that one)
Gluttony: Junk food, High fat, High calorie
Greed: Taxing excess income on investments
Sloth: that's a tough one... as much I like them, tax on vacations
Wrath: even tougher... what commerce function deals with wrath? Professional pseudo gladiator sporting events like boxing, UFC, etc.
Envy: luxury items that help you keep up with the Jones'
Pride: I define this as vanity, so cosmetics, plastic surgery, etc...

Anything regressive about these?