Cigarette taxes to increase across USA

Monday, February 16, 2009

Jonathan Foulds, MA, MAppSci, PhD

On February 4th President Obama signed legislation designed to provide health insurance to uninsured children in low-income families, which will be funded by a 62 cent increase in the federal cigarette tax per pack . This will increase the federal cigarette tax from 39 cents to just over a dollar per pack. The federal tax per packet of “little cigars” is also increasing to the same level ($1.01 per pack).This is the first time there has been a national increase in cigarette taxes for over a decade. Although the tobacco companies typically try to reduce the initial impact of such increases by offering temporary discounts, it will inevitably lead to an overall increase in the cost to the smoker per pack of cigarettes. This increase in federal cigarette taxes is in addition to increases in state and city cigarette taxes that are also sweeping the country. Although the cost per pack across the country will be around $5, in places such as New York City a packet of cigarettes will soon be well over $7. If you needed another reason to quit smoking, having to spend over $2000 a year on cigarettes, in tough financial times, might be the one. I hope you can find some helpful tips on other blog posts on this site that might help you succeed.Try some of the links on this post:http://www.healthline.com/blogs/smoking_cessation/2008/12/get-ready-for-smoke-free-2009.html

Labels: cigarette, cigarette tax, jonathan foulds, little cigar, smoking cessation

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2 Comments:

At Fri Feb 20, 10:55:00 AM 2009, martin said…

Very nice !
At Sun Feb 22, 02:21:00 AM 2009, Dunc said…

I live on $30,000 of income from social security and my pension, plus my savings. I wish to thank you President Obama and the 44 sponsors of H.R.2 for raising my federal taxes by $1,500 per year. Increasing a tax by 2185%, especially a tax that will fall almost entirely on the lower middle class and the poor, appears to be a direct contradiction of your campaign promises.

Who do you think rolls their own cigarettes? The guy making $200,000/year or the guy living on a fixed income that got addicted to cigarettes 35 years ago, when they were 35 cents a pack.

My life current expectancy is 77 years. The same as it would be if I did not smoked but drank 9 beers a week or had three accidents or violations in the last 3 years, or gained 90 pounds or had high blood pressure controlled by medication. If I had never smoked my life expectancy would be 82.

Four of my close relatives experienced the onset of dementia at 78. So not only will my smoking save me and my loved ones 5 years being a vegetable in a nursing home but it will save the taxpayer's $300,000 in nursing home costs plus 5 years of social security payments.

I think that will more than offset any additional costs that my smoking has caused the public. But if you really feel the need to punish people for their sins, lets be fair and tax the alcoholics, the reckless drivers, the obese and salt producers (high blood pressure) to the same degree.

I.E
A $4 tax on a bottle of beer.
A $1000 tax on Automobile Insurance
A $7 tax on a Big Mac
And
A $7 tax on a pound of table salt.

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Cigarette taxes to increase across USA

2 Comments: