While most Americans are worrying about the coming tax increases, there is one group that has already been slapped around by Obama and crew, and the hits from the left just keep coming. A lot of you don’t care though, because this group is ‘unpopular.’ This group is overwhelmingly low to middle class, just the kind of folks the liberals like to claim that they represent and protect. This group just faced an increase of 800-2000% in federal taxes, and the state of Minnesota is trying to push through a further increase of 140% in state taxes. These kind of numbers should alarm everybody, but since this group is smokers, most of you will cheer.

Because of the group targeted, these are hugely regressive tax increases, and smokers are rightly outraged. The tax increases and ‘user fees’ heaped on them over the last few years would not be tolerated by any other industry or consumer group. We constantly hear high minded propaganda about these money grabs being for the purpose of ‘encouraging them to quit’, and ‘to save money in health care costs.’

This is double-talk of the highest order. If the government truly wanted people to quit smoking, they could do it quiet easily, simply classify tobacco as a controlled substance, in effect making tobacco use illegal. But the political courage to do this is nowhere to be found, and it’s not because smokers have any political power; they obviously have zero. It’s because making tobacco use illegal would cost billions in lost revenue from smokers and the tobacco companies. That money would have to be made up somewhere. If you think that they would just happily do without, you’ve been smoking something. After all, how would they pay the subsidies to the tobacco farmers? Now there’s a group with political clout.

So while you’re cheering the fleecing of the smokers, keep this in mind…if they do all quit you’d better watch your wallet.

Mike Bjorgo

Austin