If you smoke cigarettes, thank you very much. If you smoke a lot of cigarettes, many more thanks. If you don't smoke, please start.
The little known fact these days is that we would be in deep, deep weeds if it were not for the smokers. With only 25% of the population in the United States admitted smokers, we really need the tax revenue on cigarettes. Why? Because $1.01 of every pack of cigarettes goes into the Federal coffers. In Minnesota for example, the tax on the pack of smokes is now $1.56. If you happen to live in Rhode Island, you will pay over $3.00/pack for state taxes. Many states, as well as the Federal Government under the SCHIP Program, use this tax money to pay for much needed health programs.
Because I am slow on government type thinking at times, I am consumed by this conundrum. We raise the price of a pack of cigarettes to discourage consumption. Yet we need the tax dollars to pay for certain health programs. If the price for a pack of smokes went up to $10 or $20 and nobody bought them anymore, what happens to the programs that are dependent on the tax funding? In other words, to use the current buzz word, this is not a sustainable program.
Before I finish, a bit of true confession. I am a former smoker. I started smoking in Navy Boot Camp in 1969. It was almost an expectation to smoke. When there was a break in the action we were told to take a "coke and smoke". When I got overseas, the price on a pack of smokes was $.17; for those in Viet Nam it was $.13. It was easy to start and hard to stop. It took me until I was 31 and my first daughter was born before I quit. Anybody who would start today at $4 and up a pack and knowing the health risks is an idiot. Plain and simple, an idiot.
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