Yeah, it was all about saving lives....

[JustRalph]

Remember when raising taxes on cigarettes was all about saving lives?

Remember, it was going to stop people from smoking and the altruistic governments and lawyers were all out to enhance our lives and make us all much healthier.

Amazing, how they don't even bother to hide the truth anymore.

Soft Tyranny.......... it's real.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=134645666

[boxcar]

Remember when raising taxes on cigarettes was all about saving lives?

Remember, it was going to stop people from smoking and the altruistic governments and lawyers were all out to enhance our lives and make us all much healthier.

Amazing, how they don't even bother to hide the truth anymore.

Soft Tyranny.......... it's real.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=134645666

And that story is just the tip of the "soft tyranny" iceberg. If the feds really had the interests of the people at heart, smoking would have been outlawed long ago. End of story. It's always been about the tax revenue. This matters more than human lives. Just like health care costs will matter more than the lives of the elderly, chronically ill, etc. if ObaminationCare isn't declared unlawful once and for all.

Boxcar

[Tom]

No one needs a government to take care of them.
If they do, they deserve whatever happens to them.
Government needs to be reduced by 75% at a minimum.

[Robert Goren]

As bad as it is to deal with medicare, it pale in comparision to dealing with a private insurance company when you have a large medical bill. I know, I have dealt with both. I pray that nobody on who post this forum has to go the hell my insurance company put me through.

[johnhannibalsmith]

Remember when raising taxes on cigarettes was all about saving lives?

...

If cigarettes didn't cost so much, maybe I could afford Chantix.

I always wondered about the philosophy that if telling someone that they will die a miserable death doesn't make them quit, well, then certainly charging more will. We all know the poorest can't afford booze, smokes, and drugs, that's why they live so long with that healthy lifestyle.

[Robert Goren]

I do agree that cigarettes should be outlawed. There is a reason it isn't and it has nothing to do taxes. It has to with tobacco farmers and big tobacco companies. Anybody who tells you different is full of it. Even a small state like Nebraska has a full time tobacco lobbyist.