Personally, I'd tax the shit out of the tobacco companies, tax their profits and then tax their after-tax earnings and investments with special health-care taxes. They're already heavily taxed, but nowhere near heavily enough. If they insist on selling poison, they gotta pay for the cure.So, with the fat kid epidemic we have now, we should also tax the the shit out of Hostess, Little Debbie, Frito-Lay, Dreyers, McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's, Sonic, Jack in the Box, Hardee's, and Dairy Queen? Make them pay for the cure? In my line of work I have a 5X risk of cancer to start with, should we be taxing all pipe welders/fitters to cover that cost too? Here's the funny thing about the cigarette tax in my state. Look at how it breaks down:
1. Health Care $1.01
2. General Fund 23.0 cents
3. Programs to Stop Youth Violence 10.5 cents
4. Water quality 8.0 cents
5. Education Programs 60.0 cents
Other than the health care, which goes to the state plan that I make too much to qualify for, what the hell do the rest of these have to do with cigarettes? If you're going to tax me for it, fine, but put the money back where it benefits me, the payee, not to water quality or youth violence BS. I'm not even going to talk about the billions of dollars in tobacco settlements that the state got, and where
THAT money went. The whole thing is assinine. Taxing the product doesn't benefit the consumer, at least not in my state. It might benefit everyone else, but not the consumer.
Washington State cigarette tax breakdown:
http://www.liq.wa.gov/tobacco/tobacco.asp
