The Shields Effect
March 5th 2010 Posted at Breaking News, General News
1 Comment 
A quick update from IPCPR:
Attention all pipe tobacco merchants, manufacturers, and consumers! House Resolution (HR) 4439, introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives, proposes an egregious increase to the pipe tobacco tax! HR4439 proposes an increase from the current tax rate of $2.83 per pound to $24.78 per pound–the same rate as RYO tobacco!
We cannot stand by while the Congress attempts another tobacco tax increase on the heels of the SCHIP tax! Contact your representatives NOW! and tell them NO to the NEW PIPE TOBACCO TAX!
| Congressional Legislation – Search Results | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Bill Name: Excise tax Increase–Pipe Tobacco | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bill Number: H.R.4439 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Latest Major Action: 1/13/2010 Referred to House committee. Status: Referred to the House Committee on Ways and Means.
You will recall that the latest from the House Committee on Ways and Means is that the longtime chair of that august committee (which decides your taxes for you) is U.S. Rep. Charles Rangle of New York. He’s been around for 20 elections.
Here is what McClatchy Newspapers reporter William Douglas wrote on March 4 of Rangle’s recent ethics problem:
WASHINGTON – Rep. Charles B. Rangel’s decision to step aside as the chairman of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee not only could be the beginning of the end of his storied career, but also gives Republicans fresh ammunition to use against Democrats in November elections.
Rangel, D-N.Y., said yesterday that he was stepping aside so his ethics troubles wouldn’t hurt Democrats in the midterm elections.
“In order to avoid my colleagues having to defend me during their elections, I have this morning sent a letter to Speaker (Nancy) Pelosi asking her to grant me a leave of absence until such time as the ethics committee completes its work,” he said.
With the House ethics committee’s admonishment of Rangel for taking corporate-paid trips to the Caribbean, and with investigations open into other alleged violations, the 20-term Democrat has become a symbol of ethical lapses at a time when Democrats are running scared for re-election.”
The ethics committee publicly admonished Rangel, 79, last week for taking two corporate-sponsored trips to the Caribbean in 2007 and 2008, though it said it had no proof he knew about the corporate funding.
This is the guy in charge of writing your tax code. You got to wonder how much of the code he is putting into his own pockets.
So, we got a call for a 775 percent increase on pipe tobacco from a lawyer in Memphis, TN., who is not exactly what I would call a shining example a good public servant, and the head of the House of Representatives power tax writing committee maybe heading to a court at some future date, or at least some sort of congressional action, maybe even expulsion, censure, reprimand or some sort of fine. Don’t hold your breath, however. Congress, which means both the House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate, are loathe to actually meet out some kind of punishment to one of its own.
Remember what Mark Twain said:
Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. . . But I repeat myself.
I hope pipesmokers will get on board against this egregious bill hoked up by Rep. Steve Cohen, a Democrat from Memphis, who won a split decision in a ovewhelming black congressional district. Cohen has spent 98 percent of his adult life on the taxpayer doll. After graduating from Memphis University Law School, he immediately swam into the public pool, and entered politics. He has been a Shelby County Commissioner, a state legislator, and now resides in the U.S. House, sitting on a powerful committee where he can make dangerous laws, such as H.R. 4439.
I just discovered the Southern Appeal blog, which calls the Cohen bill the “Hobbit Tax.” Take a look at the SA blog for yourself.
It is also noteworthy that the Memphis Tea Party is considering helping an opponent of its choice against Cohen in November’s election. We can only hope that Cohen is defeated by a politician with more brains and less of the sleaze factor than Cohen.
And finally, I would like for you to remember that it was Brooke Shields, the so-called actress, who once said: Smoking kills. If you’re killed, you’ve lost a very important part of your life. She said this during an interview to become a spokesperson for a federal anti-smoking campaign.
That should give you some idea of the brains behind the antis and the entire Cohen campaign.
Tobacco Piracy Tax Act
March 6th 2010 Posted at Breaking News, Commentary, General News
3 Comments
It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly native American criminal class except Congress- Mark Twain
I just finished reading the latest issue of Pipes & Tobacco Magazine, one of my favorite publications. This edition had only a mention of the so-called “Tobacco Tax Parity Act,” or House Resolution (HR) 4439, introduced by career politician Rep. Steve Cohen of Memphis, TN.
First, I would like to correct the nomenclature of the bill. Instead of a “tax parity”, it is more a “tax piracy act.”
Political office abusers, such as Cohen, are simply trying to fund other budget-busting projects by levying taxes on what is perceived by the general public as a health hazard.
Never mind that alcohol, automobiles (Toyota comes to mind immediately), guns (before you send me a nasty email, I love guns, hunted all my life and was a sometimes good duck hunter), the atmosphere in certain cities can be and are hazardous to one’s health. You don’t see the kind of reaction that tobacco receives, which is a constant taxing of those who use the products they enjoy.
This is simply a pirating of our basic civil rights, our right to choose, our right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, and is a mean-spirited method of plugging holes in public budgets that have been overdrawn for years by financial free-spenders in Congress and local public bodies.
Cohen is just the latest iteration of this political phenomenon. He is in a tough re-election race in his home-district in Memphis, which is primarily a black population, and is willing to cut any sort of deal with any group to keep his job.
Slam-dunking tobacco is good politics and good for contributions from a variety of anti-tobacco sources. Cohen is going up against Willie Herenton, another career politician, who is the first African American elected Mayor of Memphis. Herenton was the superintendent of Memphis City Schools for 12 years.
He resigned from his position as superintendent amidst public accusations of an affair he was having with one of his employees.
These days, some career pols experience troubles with their former peccadilloes. Can anyone say John Edwards, or Mark Sanford?
The Tobacco Piracy Tax Act comes at a time when every politician worth old campaign promises is saying that the Great Recession is over and we can all get back to work.
I just read a news story the other day that said many of those middle class jobs we once had are gone forever. Don’t count on their return, or even a job if you happen to be breaking 60 and have just lost a job. The message I read is, “Goodbye, good luck, and don’t let the door hit you in the derriere.”
So, at a time when many, many people are having a hard time keeping the home budget on two feet, Cohen and his ilk want to tax pipe tobacco to an outrageous extent, some 775 percent to be precise, from $2.83 to almost $25 per pound to make it on par with roll your own cigarette taxes. The RYO boys pulled a fast one, repackaged their tobacco in tins to pass it off as pipe tobacco in order to skirt the exchorbitant federal tax on RYO. This put pipe tobacco in the sights of such gunslingers as Cohen who will curry favor with any group as long as he can get campaign contributions and stir up an issue for votes.
This Cohen piracy tax proposal will put many tobacco manufacturers out of business, lop off many jobs, cause the unemployment rolls to go up, increase unemployment benefits and add to the jobless rate that is currently right at 10 percent across the nation.
Yeah, this makes sense.
And, while we are at it, why not follow Cohen and his kind on how they vote for the upcoming health care issue, if it ever comes to a vote. If he is so all-fired concerned about our health, then he won’t mind our keeping track of his voting record on health care.
Contact your Congressman about the Tobacco Piracy Tax Act, and let them know where you stand, that you are tired of tobacco products being taxed out of existence to fund some idiotic and costly project that benefits the few.
And if you can get his or her attention, pry them loose from lobbyists money-raising bashes for re-election efforts, get them to take time away from travel junkets to foreign lands at taxpayer expense, ask them to think about doing the job they were sent to Washington to do. We call it the people’s business.
Part of that job is not to tax people who can ill afford to be taxed over a staple such as tobacco, once a prominent cash crop for hard-working farmers, who used their tobacco allotments to ensure their children had shoes for school.
Tell them that we love our tobacco and we intend to continue using tobacco in the form we choose, despite the underhanded and crooked means that Congress is trying to smash the tobacco market with the help of faulty science and screaming meme anti-smoking wackos.
Friends, it is time to stop the Tobacco Piracy Tax Act.