Quote Originally Posted by walrus View Post
And perhaps the moral of the story was lost on some. My state budgets the taxes on cigarettes the year before they are collected. Now he is on the radio bragging about the massive amount of revenue collected on cigarette taxes. Didn’t he want everyone to stop? So why brag about it now? That’s what I mean about hypocrisy. My state also blew all the money they got from the tobacco industry in lawsuits. It wasn’t set aside to help people quit like it was supposed to be. I have no clue how this broke out into a usually shit storm thread. Just pointing out the hypocrisy of our politicians that was all.

It's not a shit storm. Just slapping down the forum rabid dog.

Taxing cigarettes. Whatever your take on this, I don't see anything particularly wrong with the practice. This... "Despite a pack being near 13usd here I see people on disability checks figuring out how many packs they can buy for month and still afford food."... describes people with severe addiction. It's a sickness, which should be treated. The fact that cigarettes serve no useful purpose and is harmful to your health is bad enough. When you throw "second hand smoke" in there, it compounds the problem. Not sure from your post whether you support or are against the cigarette taxes themselves... but I see your point about the hypocrisy part of it. But then politicians are crooked everywhere... don't you think?