No. Not only NO but FUCK NO! In some states they still call this a sin tax. Cigarettes are legal to buy and consume, just like Mountain Dew, Diet Coke, Cookies, Candy Bars and Dr. Pepper. Those who support the taxes use the 'mere' link of second hand smoke and direct smoke inhalation of cigarettes to serious health care problems in the U.S. Do we know what the food manufacturers are putting in every package of manufactured food we buy and consume three to nine times a day? Do we know that obesity is just as much of a serious health risk as smoking?
Over 60 million adults and 9 million children are obese in the U.S. alone. Obesity increases your risk for heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, dyslipidemia, stroke, osteoarthritis, gallbladder disease, sleep apnea, respiratory problems. Though the health risks are not limited to, the above diseases there are so many unknown variables with the stress levels and what your body releases due to the stress of being obese that are not known. Stress compounded with the obesity can be volatile emotionally and mentally. So not only are there physical health risks, but emotional and mental health risks become overwhelming to the child &/or teen and the viscous cycle of obesity becomes an epidemic.
According to a study of national costs attributed to both overweight (BMI 2529.9) and obesity (BMI greater than 30), medical expenses accounted for 9.1 percent of total U.S. medical expenditures in 1998 and may have reached as high as $78.5 billion ($92.6 billion in 2002 dollars) (Finkelstein, Fiebelkorn, and Wang, 2003). Approximately half of these costs were paid by Medicaid and Medicare. The primary data sets used to develop the spending estimates for this study included the 1998 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) and the 1996 and 1997 National Health Interview Surveys (NHIS). The data also included information about each person's health insurance status and sociodemographic characteristics. This does not include the ramifications of the mental and psychological costs, as well as the cost to production in most manufacturing settings. Nor the millions of dollars paid by private out of pocket costs, HMO's and PPO's that were not reported with this 9.1 percent.
Economic analysis concludes cigarettes and other tobacco products represent about 10% of ALL health care costs in America. Now let us look at what causes the other 81% of health care costs in America. The chemicals we eat in every packaged food each and every American consumes daily, the carbon monoxide poisoning of our environment from fossil fuel motor vehicles and processing manufacturing plants, nuclear waste facilities, water contamination and the many psyche drugs being over prescribed in the medical industry that cause more health problems than they ever cure. Oh, and let us not forget the mining industry with black lung, and global warming for skin cancer and other diseases.
Smoke from cigarettes is a drop in the bucket to our environmental pollution compared to the exhaust fumes we produce in our commute time of 1-3 hours per day, every single day of the year. Brown skies and EPA advisories are not caused by cigarette smoke. Sin tax is what is seen when you logically compare the other problems we have as Americans paying taxes on our taxes.
Mass hysteria on a 'stinking, teeth staining, dirty, filthy habit', so say the commercials on national television by those who support the heavy taxes on cigarettes. Another 'witch hunt' is all I see these taxes to be. We as a society are still looking for someone else to blame for our own inadequacies and imperfections that we are too afraid to actually look at where the problem lies; within each and every one of us to take personal responsibility for our own actions.
I would like to propose tax laws that levy those sins of the groups of people who pass these tax laws on cigarettes. Let's see; mass murder tax, child exploitation tax, pedophile tax, human trafficking tax, infidelity tax, high treason tax, war crime tax, domestic violence against women tax, civil rights violation tax for every civil right violated, bigotry tax, hypocrisy tax, illegal use of force tax, illegal search and seizure tax, child abuse and neglect tax, the list goes on and on. When we can tax their sins, then maybe cigarette taxes will be fair. No matter what way we look at it, these hyped up medical costs and claims about cigarettes and the reasons for the taxes levied on smokers is unconstitutional, unfair and another excuse to kill Mobey Dick at the cost of the entire crew and our own liberty.
DO WE HAVE ANOTHER WITCH HUNT IN THE 21ST CENTURY BY THE EXTREME RIGHT AND NON-SMOKERS OF AMERICA?
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