Smokers – S.O.S. ( Saviors of Society )
Once again it looks as though some Oregonians are set to start stealing from others through government sanction to reinforce their piety. I am talking about yet another cigarette tax increase to fund the Oregon Health Plan. The caring pious ones will get to feel good about themselves, providing those always essential government services, without it costing them a penny. Don’t these people increasingly sound to you like that obnoxious kid in third grade who was always going to “tell the teacher on you”?
Has anyone really thought about all those cigarette tax increases? Sure it’s easy to hate smokers. It’s in fashion. Always cloaked in the self-righteousness attitude that somehow their behavior costs society millions and endangers everyone around them. But has anyone really thought through the tax angle on this hatred?
As taxpayers, most of us pay Medicare and Medicaid taxes. These are the programs that some how got ripped off by those evil smokers through their supposedly higher medical needs. Yet a few years back there was the settlement with Big Tobacco. This settlement was in the billions of dollars and states reaped a windfall. Supposedly this was to pay the governments back for health care claims they would not have had absent cigarette smoking. Whether these were past costs being recouped or future costs to be incurred was never made clear. All that was clear was that Big Tobacco was hated and they were going to fork over the money come hell or high water. Well, the money is being paid, in installments to be sure, but paid nonetheless.
The big problem with this whole thing is government never pays for anything, taxpayers do. If the settlement money was to pay for past expenses incurred by the health care system, then aren’t the taxpayers due a refund? They paid for all that care initially, now the government has supposedly recouped that loss. Where’s my check? On the other hand, if the settlement was to pay for future health care costs, then isn’t a reduction in Medicare and Medicaid premiums i.e. taxes in order? Don’t hold your breath, especially if you smoke.
Once again it looks as though some Oregonians are set to start stealing from others through government sanction to reinforce their piety. I am talking about yet another cigarette tax increase to fund the Oregon Health Plan. The caring pious ones will get to feel good about themselves, providing those always essential government services, without it costing them a penny. Don’t these people increasingly sound to you like that obnoxious kid in third grade who was always going to “tell the teacher on you”?
Has anyone really thought about all those cigarette tax increases? Sure it’s easy to hate smokers. It’s in fashion. Always cloaked in the self-righteousness attitude that somehow their behavior costs society millions and endangers everyone around them. But has anyone really thought through the tax angle on this hatred?
As taxpayers, most of us pay Medicare and Medicaid taxes. These are the programs that some how got ripped off by those evil smokers through their supposedly higher medical needs. Yet a few years back there was the settlement with Big Tobacco. This settlement was in the billions of dollars and states reaped a windfall. Supposedly this was to pay the governments back for health care claims they would not have had absent cigarette smoking. Whether these were past costs being recouped or future costs to be incurred was never made clear. All that was clear was that Big Tobacco was hated and they were going to fork over the money come hell or high water. Well, the money is being paid, in installments to be sure, but paid nonetheless.
The big problem with this whole thing is government never pays for anything, taxpayers do. If the settlement money was to pay for past expenses incurred by the health care system, then aren’t the taxpayers due a refund? They paid for all that care initially, now the government has supposedly recouped that loss. Where’s my check? On the other hand, if the settlement was to pay for future health care costs, then isn’t a reduction in Medicare and Medicaid premiums i.e. taxes in order? Don’t hold your breath, especially if you smoke.
posted by R Huse at 8:32 PM
2 Comments:
I wandered onto your site by hitting a wrong button, was very entertained and got to this post. I just wrote a paper for a graduate course on the subject of smoking and here is what I said about the Tobacco Settlement:
In 1998, in an effort to stave off state and personal lawsuits, the major tobacco companies agreed to give $246 billion over a 25-year period to the states to use for prevention, education, and medical costs associated with tobacco use, but the states are only using a small fraction of those monies for the stated purpose. Maine, Delaware and Mississippi are the only three states that currently fund prevention programs at the minimum level recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and 37 states provide less than half the funding recommended or none at all (Spivak & Friedman, 2004 at http://www.tobaccofreekids.org/ reports/settlement). In any case, these state government prevention efforts are more than offset by tobacco company marketing dollars, estimated to be $23 for every dollar spent on prevention.
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In other words, it was just a shakedown of the tobacco companies (who were more than willing to be extorted to avoid massive litigation settlements). Most of the states are using the money for other programs besides healthcare and prevention.
I don't know whether this affects your refund idea!
Oh yes - Obviously it was all just a shakedown. What would be refreshing is a little less demonization and a little more recognition of the contribution smokers make to our society.
I wish for one month the tobacco companies would say "screw you, for the next month, we are not shipping any cigarettes to your state" Then we could watch as the state begs for relief due to the lack of tax revenue. The states make more money on cigarettes than anyone and the fact that they weren't held just as culpable as the tobacco companies is beyond me. If its that bad, lets just make it illegal.
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