Make no mi$take… Ma$$achu$ett$ want$ you to $moke… a lot
I’m so furious with the state of Massachusetts right now, I could scream. Avert your eyes, young ones. I’m pissed!
My great uncle works for a discount cigarette store in New Hampshire and yesterday he says to me, “Get ready, cigarette prices are rising!”
I knew the spendthrifts on Beacon Hill were planning on a tax increase on cigarettes to help pay for the ridiculous, or “revolutionary” as they call it, forced health insurance plan shoved down our throats but I thought I’d have more time. I thought maybe the handful of Republicans up there would slow it down. Nope. You’ll never see the idiots on Beacon Hill work so hard as when they are racing to push a tax increase bill through for immediate passage. So now, as of tomorrow morning, I have to pay an additional $1 per pack.
Before all the “oh-my-God-cigarettes-are-the-devil” folks get on my case, let me remind everyone that smoking is in fact LEGAL for adults such as myself. If you hate it so much, why not press lawmakers to make it illegal… oh wait, they’ll never do it. Why, you ask? They’ve come up with $174 million more reasons why.
From the Globe’s story: “Sen. Harriette Chandler, D-Worcester, said the tax is designed in part to discourage smoking, even as it raises new revenues.” That is such a heaping pile of bullshit, I can smell it through my monitor! I don’t know what Ms. Chandler looks like, but I imagine she had a smirk as she made that statement. They said that with the last tax increase, and the one before that, and the one before that… we smokers don’t quit, we adjust and the lawmakers have extra money to waste.
If your argument is, “smoking causes lots of medical problems that burden our healthcare system,” why don’t we start taxing fat people? Obesity is the new tobacco after all. Maybe we should add an additional $1 to every Big Mac sale? Increase the Massachusetts meal tax by 10%? How ’bout we throw on a sales tax for any plus size pair of pants? Want a pint of Ben and Jerry’s… cough over an extra $3. Oh no, we could never institute a tax like that, it’d be too discriminatory… right? “But smoking is your choice,” you say. So is cramming your face with a large order of french fries and washing it down with a super-sized gallon of Coke.
So, while the smokers once again are targeted because smoking is so politically incorrect, things like alcohol remain tax free. Don’t worry, downtrodden smoker… instead of lung cancer, in Massachusetts you can enjoy the wonders of cirrhosis of the liver! You’ll be too busy breathing easily to notice your jaundice!
Thank God my car is fuel-efficient because I can see a bi-weekly trip to New Hampshire in my future. Ah, New Hampshire… our friendly neighbor to the north. I can almost see the delight on the faces of the Seabrook cigarette retailers now. $$$
until the NFL Draft!
Lets all pray that a toll on 93 doesn’t follow the tax increase because I heard a rumor that MA might be considering dropping a toll both to make up for lost dollars. I guess it is our fault the economy sucks. Maybe if our governemnt didn’t spend so much money on bull shit we would be in a slightly better financial situation.
I don’t smoke but that does suck that they are upping the tax. That’s Massachusetts for ya.. Friggin ridiculous the way this state is run.
..And I’ll have a JUNIOR bacon-double-chee.. a JUNIOR bacon-double-chee.. because I’m trying to watch my figure. and a SMALL chocolate shake.. I’m trying to watch my weight for health reasons.
If God didnt want people to smoke, he never would have invented tobacco. People make sure a big stink over it and its ridiculous.
Can you imagine a State where the lawmakers tried their hardest to leave people the fuck alone? Eh, neither can I. Nevermind.
I think that part of the problem is that pork barrel spending is so politically correct. If you’re in government, and you spend other people’s money (“think of the children”), it looks like you are doing something. If you cut a few programs and lower taxes, people are so irrational that they forget about the extra money that slowly accrues in their bank accounts and cry foul that there is still such a thing as poverty.
It’s just too bad that Federal legistlators never learned the 10th amendment. The States wouldn’t have to be so “clever” raising money for their own pork.
All of this talk about pork makes me hungry. I think I’ll eat an artery clogging pork-chop, which cost practically nothing and think about how Angela is paying…what?… $6 per pack now? You might have to resort to prositution just to exercise your right to do what you want with your body.
It sucks that I now have to shell out an extra buck but I’m mostly angry at the principle. You can be sure I will be saying something. I have, on average, at least one state rep in my office per week. Lately more. (It’s an election year so they all have to advertise). Luckily, my mom works in Seabrook so I’m going to start giving her money for cartons. Take that, Assachusetts!
As a libertarian, I’m against both government regulating your life, when they’ve no business to be doing so in a free country, and I’m also against excessive taxation (that’s most of it).
I’ve quit smoking, but I don’t care what you do in your own home, it’s none of my business, and it shouldn’t be any of the Goverment’s business either.
They just want the money under the guise of being concerned about our health. Ask ‘em to make it illegal if they’re so “concerned”. They won’t.
I quite agree. It’s like the European idea of high gas tax to discourage folks to drive, which is very similar BS. Smokers and motorists and drinkers and always an easy target for the politicians, as they get the do-gooders behind them….
alright im so sick of this state. i barely get any money and iv ben fine with paying the regular price but now im forced into paying almost 7 dollars for a pack of ciggs??? hells no im not paying it! too bad i live 2 mintues form new hampshire! fuck u massachusettes!
Nicely put ahhhh
Hi, I don’t smoke, but I think it is wrong for the government to keep taxing smokers, drinkers etc. What happened before when gambling was illegal then the government jumped in and now its legal. I live in Canada and a pack of cigs I think are well over 8.00 In convenience stores now, they can’t have cigs shown on their display case anymore. Suppose to deter kids from smoking. If kids want to smoke they are going to find a way no matter what. Also there is a new law in effect here in Ontario that you can’t smoke in your car if you have kids under 16 in your car. just a little didbit to let u know..Mary
Devoid, ops, Deval Clinton , ops Patrick is an idiot. The asshole wants to tax everything. He could not be happy with what the former governors drove, he had to have a Caddy! That should have been our first clue right there.
The should not be taxing the people more, they should be making pay cuts to all of the hacks and slackers in the MA government. Why? Because they do NOTHING!
Pathetic State to be sure.
Yes, they do make a lot of dollars by Cigars…