What taxes has President Obama/Congress Raised? Only The Cigarette Taxes?

[TomCADem]

I know that Republicans complain about President Obama being a tax and spend Democrat at every opportunity, but what taxes have been raised under President Obama? The only one I am aware of is the cigarette tax. Also, didn't the stimulus bill have $288 billion of tax cuts?

[DJ13]

1. Its a sad day when taxes on the working class smokers goes up

while the wealthy bankers continue paying the lowest tax rates in decades.

[SpartanDem]

2. Only the working class smokes?

[Hello_Kitty]

5. A disproportionate percentage of smokers are low income

Plus sales taxes of any kind are typically regressive.

[TomCADem]

7. Thanks! I Thought He Was Saying The Tax Is Only Payed By Low Income Folks While...

Rich folks smoking imported cigars were getting a free ride.

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What I do wonder is whether richer smokers smoke more expensive stuff? Or, are smoking products pretty uniform in cost. I apologize, but I don't smoke, so I have no idea how cigarettes are priced.

[SpartanDem]

13. But smoking is a choice

my point is you can't compare this to a regular sales tax

[Hello_Kitty]

14. As are the vast majority of other things you pay sales tax on.

Last time I checked no one NEEDED a bottle of Pepsi or a book or a CD.

[SpartanDem]

23. You also have the fact this tax has reduced the number of smokers

something this is hugely beneficial for everyone regardless of economic class, that this tax hits the the poor disproportionately is irrelevant.

[Hello_Kitty]

25. Sorry but I don't think anything that disproportionately targets the poor is irrelevant

Someone already posted a chart that demonstrates the correlation between smoking and income. The biggest predictor of smoking as an adult is being low income. In Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed she talks about how smoking was so prevalent among the working poor she spent a year with and how she came to understand what an in important stress relieving and psychological function smoking played for them. Poor people do not have gym memberships and the various and sundry other privileges and perks that make the lives of middle class people nicer and make them less likely to smoke.

[Mojorabbit]

26. Someone posted a study here

a while back that says smokers cost less as they die earlier. You also have the problem of pricing your funding for health care for kids out of reach for those paying for it with their taxes. A society that thinks health care for kids is important should all have a stake in funding it.

[inna]

29. exactly.

sales taxes ARE regressive.

(any examples of sales taxes that are not regressive? anyone?)

[TomCADem]

3. I don't think the tobacco tax only applies to the working class.

As I understand, the tax applies to all tobacco products,

[FrenchieCat]

8. As a smoker, I wish a pack would cost $100 each. That way I'd live a longer life.....

Wish that for all smokers. At least somebody would think twice before lighting up their one cigarette per day.

[TomCADem]

10. A Neighbor Of Mine Has Lung Cancer...

It is a really, really bad way to go. I did hear on NPR that people are reducing the amount they smoke in response to the tax whether you agree with it or not.

[Hello_Kitty]

15. Which points to the paradox about 'sin' taxes

When certain behaviors are taxed heavily, even if the purpose of the tax is to disincentivize them, the government becomes dependent on the revenue. Which then declines because people reduce their usage of the substance that is taxed. This leads the gov't to either tax the substance more, or look for other "sins" to tax.

[TomCADem]

16. Studies Have Shown That Smoking Declines as Smoking Taxes Increase

Here is an article from 2007 regarding the last tax increase on smoking, and apparently this prior tax increase did not stop most recent increase. So, if you do think that smoking should be reduced, then it does appear that a tax increase is the way to go.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2007-08-09-1Alede_N.htm

###

As Congress weighs the biggest federal cigarette tax hike in history, a USA TODAY analysis finds that higher state taxes on smokers have produced sharp declines in consumption.
The amount of decline in smoking is directly tied to the size of the tax increase, the analysis shows.

Cigarette sales fell 18% in North Carolina last year after the tax was raised in two steps to 35 cents from a nickel. The tobacco-growing state resisted higher cigarette taxes until 2005. Elsewhere:

•Connecticut has increased its tax to $1.51 from 50 cents per pack in 2002. Since then, per capita consumption of cigarettes has fallen 37%.

•New Jersey raised its tax to $2.40 from 80 cents in 2002. Smoking has dropped 35%.

###

[Hello_Kitty]

21. Of course it does. Which is why funding SCHIP with a tobacco tax might not have been the best idea.

They are going to have to keep increasing the taxes to fund the program until they tax people out of smoking. Which is fine, but how will they fund the program then? This is why you can expect to see "sin" taxes on sodas and junk food pretty soon.

[TomCADem]

27. I Would Like To Think Some Of That Gets Rolled Into The Healthcare Reform Bill

If healthcare reform is supposed to do anything, it is to expand coverage, so perhaps with reform, the need for SCHIP will decrease.

[Clio the Leo]

4. That b*ast*rd's trying to tax my Mountain Dew!!!!

What's next .... a Cheetos cap!!!?!!?!?!

ETA: It's important to note that I have a southern accent and you need to read this post with that in mind, makes it WAY funnier.

[TomCADem]

6. Has This Tax Been Passed, Yet?

I thought it was only proposed. What I am wondering is that for all the complaining by Republicans, what federal taxes have actually been raised?

[Christian30]

9. Only the ones

that are regressive and disproportionately affect working class and poor people. Like the cigarette tax.

[TomCADem]

12. Any others that are actually passed? Is it just cigarettes, then?

I know that the house is proposing a tax on the rich to pay for healthcare, but aside from proposals, is the cigaratte tax the lone federal tax increase under President Obama?

[Clio the Leo]

19. While I'm usually all about the PROGRESSIVE taxes....

..... folks need to put down the sugar and the nicotene, I dont care who they are.

We are perhaps the only civilization in the history of man that has fat poor people ..... it's disgraceful.

I want a tax credit for vegetables! ;)

[Hello_Kitty]

24. I'd rather we direct resources toward making poor people less poor

Rather than micromanaging their lives.

We are perhaps the only civilization in the history of man that has fat poor people ..... it's disgraceful

Would it be less disgraceful if we had more poor people with their ribs sticking out and bellies distended? What a bizarre statement.

[Clio the Leo]

30. Didn't say that......

.... ya know?

Americans in general have some pretty messed up eating and exercise habits (or lack thereof) ..... blame it on diet, blame it on the affordability of junkfood, blame it the lack of availability of public exercise facilities.

I can see your point about social micromanagement, but if the gvmt wants to pass a tax that would help fund better lifestyle opportunities, I cant really argue with that. I dont believe the 14th Amendment guarantees citizens the right to smoke ..... and I believe we have an obligation to the children who have no choice but to be subjected to it ..... while eating their Cheetos. ;)

[FrenchieCat]

11. A tax that saves lives. Who would have thunk it?

[Hello_Kitty]

17. And one that disproportionately affects the poor. Who would have thunk it?

Instead of devoting so much effort into punish and socially engineering the poor out of their "bad habits", why not expend some of it in, you know, helping them to stop being poor?

[Clio the Leo]

20. So they spend the tax reveune on research, etc. that will help stop smoking and.....

.... fund cancer research.

Am I oversimplifying things?

[Hello_Kitty]

22. But that's not what they spend it on.

The recent federal tax increase on tobacco is to fund children's health care. States spend theirs on all kinds of things, with very little going to smoking cessation programs or cancer research.

[Clio the Leo]

31. Well ........ you just wait until *I* am Queen of America. ....

..... there WILL be free cauliflower, I'll tell ya that! ;)

And beans! All the beans you can eat! (no one will want to attack this country because no one will want to get within 10 feet of us.)

[FrenchieCat]

28. As a smoker, I don't mind the assistance.

Why assist the poor in killing themselves by making death cheap?

And you understand that this tobacco tax is to fund healthcare for poor children, right?

[Hello_Kitty]

32. You do understand the inherent contradiction

In funding health care for poor children through a tax on a substance which is designed to disincentivize the use of that substance, right?

And how about we assist the poor by helping them to be less poor? That would go a lot farther toward getting them to quit their bad habits than punishing them with sin taxes.

[Clio the Leo]

18. Last I heard it was losing support. NT