I am not a real political person, at least not outwardly. I heard on the radio today the cigarette tax has gone up to $1.01 a pack! I don't smoke so you might ask yourself, "why do you care?" They were interviewing smokers to get their opinion about the tax. I felt like screaming through the speakers. Instead I will just dump all my thoughts into this nice little blog.
Right now a pack of cigarettes costs about $8.00. I would say an average smoker smokes at least a pack a day. One week would cost about $56. A month of smoking racks up to about $1,700!!! This just blows my mind. That is a house payment! I get so frustrated by this because I have worked in a doctors office for almost 10 years now and have dealt a lot with people in the welfare system. Please don't misunderstand me, I am completely for government help for those who are in need. I would have to say that 75% (and that is a very rough estimate) of the people that come to the doctors with the Oregon Health Plan are smokers. Seeing those numbers above I just don't get it. How can you afford to pay that much to smoke, but you can't afford to buy food or health insurance. It's already frustrating enough to see people smoking in the parking lot prior to appointments, with or without children. Okay on this one.
A man was asked what he thought about the cigarette tax. Now imagine an old, somewhat smoky, hillbilly voice, "I don't know why they keep raising the tax. I think they just want to pick on us ol' smokers. They try and say that it's bad for you and causes cancer and all that stuff, but I don't even know if I believe that."
There's not a whole lot I can say about that comment but WOW!
Oh, one last thing. Since the taxes keep going up on cigarettes people have now taken to buying tobacco by bulk and rolling their own cigarettes. As if it wasn't already addictive enough, now people are going to be sucking straight tobacco without a filter.
3 comments:
The crazy irony in all that is President Obama raised the cigarette tax to help health care reform so that poor people can have health care. So, those who are on welfare (the smokers) are the one's dishing out more money to pay for his health care plan that they will be benefiting from. Do you see what I'm saying? He's betting against himself.
I'm happy to see you're back and posting again. It's nice.
I actually heard that smoker's hotlines and quitting techniques have been blowing up since they raised the tax. Pretty funny how that all works, huh?
I loved it when they passed the no smoking at parks and beaches down here- it was great! Although I do remember a time long long ago in the dugouts at BYUH.... but nevermind;)
Post a Comment