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How this gov't destroyed a few hundred businesses and jobs a week ago and you never heard a thing.
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Original Message
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I smoke...too bad if you don't like that. It's my choice and also respect people who don't and their personal space etc, Don't bother telling me what's wrong about it, I'm well aware of the downsides, just like anyone who smokes is, so save the "it's bad for you" crapola.
So with that being said...
Back in 2009 the govt saw fit to levy some heavy punisher type taxes on Cigarettes and other tobacco products. This was the second order of Business for the 111th congress in 2009. HR.2, A 33 billion dollar tax increase which fell hardest on the lower to middles class...terms I hate btw....but anyway since your friends in the govt are always looking out for the little guy...I guess this was just another example of you ain't the kind of "little guy" we like, so screw you.
The bill was the "SCHIP" Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2009. The History of this program was that it more or less expands Medicaid to children whose familes made too much money to normally qualify. The program was around since 1997 and was funded for 10 years. The cost was 40 billion over those 10 years. When the Democrats took control of congress in 2006 they wanted to expand the program as well as refud it. GW Bush, president at the time, said no and promised to veto a bill expanding it. His position was that expanding the program greatly expanded the federalization of health care. Congress passed a bill refunding and expanding the program, Bush vetoed it and congress attemted to over ride his veto, they failed, by 13 votes. There was a stop gap funding measure later passed which mantained the program at current costs for 2 years.
When the new congress took over in 2009 the second bill they voted on which was the SCHIP bill, it passed and Obama signed it into law feb 4th. The bill included a tax increases on small cigars of 2,653%. "roll your own" loose tobacco 2,159%, Cigarettes 158%. There were a couple of tobacco products that survived the huge increase relatively unscathed. One of the products was "Pipe tobacco". The tax per pound was indeed increased over 150%, but the actual cost per lb was a mere $1.10 a pound going up to $2.83 per pound...one pound of tobacco is a lot of tobacco, one full carton of cigarettes contains less than one half of a pound. The new taxes went into effect Apr 1 2009.
So now you know a bit of the history about the large tax increase on tobacco and cigarettes.
Here are the bills and some articles where you can read/learn more if you want to. I even included one from "socialist worker .org" fair and balanced comrades!...lol!
[link to taxfoundation.org]
[link to www.govtrack.us]
[link to socialistworker.org]
[link to www.medpagetoday.com]
[link to www.nytimes.com]
The reason I told you about the SCHIP act and the tax increases is this; The lower tax per pound on pipe tobacco had the affect of spawning an entire cottage industry.
Several months ago a "tobacco shop" sprung up for business near where I live. Someone told me about it and that they had some sort of deal on cigs that was maybe half the price of the store brands, which I was likely bitching about at that time. It was some sort of make your own cigs thing which I was not real interested in, but they had only heard about it and they had heard it was different than the old time roll your own way, so I said I'd check it out.
I went to the place, it was pretty busy and it was only open for a couple of weeks. The way their setup worked was this. They sold tobacco, sold the roll your own "RYO" tubes that were just an empty cigarette with a filter, just like any store brand. They had a couple of pretty healthy sized machines that were for rolling your own cigarettes.
The store rented you the use of their machine, cost maybe 5 bucks. They sold you the tobacco, sold you the "tubes", then you went and loaded the tubes into a magazine in the machine, dumped the tobacco into a hopper and then hit "Start" and the automated machine chugged away and made your cigarettes. Not nearly as fast as an automated line like a big tobacco company's equiptment could do, but not too slow either, maybe took 10-15 minutes to make a whole carton, 200 cigs. Total cost for everything? about half the price of the store brands.
They also had other selling points, there were no "additives" in this tobacco like the big tobacco brands, they also didn't have to use that "Fire safety" paper which tastes horrible and is another source of chemicals etc etc and with just plain smoking being harmful enough?...who needs to make it even worse.
I could see right away these little RYO machine stores had a good thing that would likely take off, as long as the cigarettes were good...which they were. I began to get my cigs from them all the time and the little tobacco store got busier, they added 2 more machines and they were always pretty busy.
I usually tried to go there when they were not real crowded, usually closer to their closing time, after 8pm anyway. I got to know some of the people there after some weeks, I'm a personable guy, plus I can blab a LOT...:) The people that worked there were mostly younger people and we'd bullshit about all sorts of topics, make jokes etc etc laugh and generally just hang out, sometimes other people there too would join in the conversations and it was a sort of local good time type atmosphere as we'd sit and take the cigs the machines chugged out and put them in a box.
Last Sunday I went there and there was a sign on the door that said something like, "Due to a new govt regulation, our machines are no longer in production, open Monday-Friday" They were open 7 days a week...
So next day I went back and there was one person working there, the machines were pushed against a wall and shrink wraped. I asked them what happened and they said they were done, there was a new regulation that defacto put them out of business, the girl there didn't really know what it was exactly about, but she was there to sell off whatever stock they had and then she'd be gone too. I asked how many people were working there, she said six at least steady a couple more when they could get people, now 2 and that was only going to last a week or two at the most.
So I looked into it...
As part of the transportation bill H.R. 4348, the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Actor MAP act there was an admendment known as the "Baucus amendment" from Senator MAX BAUCUS D. Montana...(asshole) that was put into the house bill when the deadline was near. The ryder also known as the RYO ryder would require all the owners of these RYO machines to register as "Manufacturers" which is a huge and prohibitive cost among other regulations that it would carry along with it.
Omama signed the bill into law on January 3rd...
The bill also contained the politicaly contested item about the student loan rates increasing. The Republicans in the house wimped out because they had little time to rehash and argue the measure and because the optics of the bill would have been used to vilify them in the press...besides...it was almost vacation time. The Baucus RYO ryder was supposed to have been pushed by the "National association of convience stores", as they claimed that the tobacco stores were cutting into their sales, but they've also been noted as pawns of big tobacco before.
Senator Max Baucus has also recieved donations from the "Altria Group"...Parent company of Phillip Moris...tobacco giant.
The company that sold these machines sold over a thousand of them. People could invest in one or more at around $30,000 each and pretty much have a turn key entrepreneurial busness up and running and making proft in almost no time ...
So with the stroke of the pen from the president and a little amendment in a massive bill from a sentator that has not a single one of these machines in his own state, a few thousand jobs get vanished and we hardly heard a word about it. The company that makes the machines won't be selling anymore in the US...and it was a US company...a little start up cottage industry goes silently into the night regulated and taxed out of existence.
Another one bites the dust...
Some articles and references.
[link to www.forbes.com]
[link to www.cspnet.com]
[link to www.opensecrets.org]
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