Lawmakers urge higher cigarette taxes to pay for Build Back Better bill, and the tobacco industry and retailers cry foul. Rightfully so

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Guess what, the big, bad tobacco industry is absolutely right. Higher and never-ending taxes on cigarettes are already driving black market crime. Every time with these politicians, it’s let’s pile on more taxes upon cigarette smokers to pay for this or that. We’re already paying far more than our fair share in federal, state and local taxes every time a pack of cigarettes is purchased, yet year after year we are conveniently scapegoated and punished. How about instead of throwing new taxes upon smokers – who, by and large, keep their smoking away from others these days; I know I do - we pass the cost for the Build Back Better bill on to the unvaccinated? If the intent is to punish a certain sector of society, then punish those blatantly spreading a plague, not people whose only relief in this rotten life is engaging in a vice that used to be perfectly normal before our society went mad. Politico -  

A group tied to major cigarette manufacturers is warning Congress that if lawmakers tax tobacco to help pay for President Joe Biden’s domestic agenda, suppliers will market smokes to children. 

That was the not-so-subtle message made last month by a coalition of trade associations, including the National Association of Convenience Stores, as Congress began hammering out the specifics of the president’s Build Back Better bill. 

Though the e-cigarette and tobacco company names aren’t directly on the letter, the convenience store association counts as its members some of the biggest names in the industry: Altria Group, Reynolds American Inc., and JUUL Labs — the e-cigarette giant that has faced a myriad of probes of its own into whether the company has marketed toward children. Just this week, in fact, the trade association announced that top executives from the tobacco and vaping companies had taken on a leadership position in the lobby group. 

In the letter, dated Sept. 14, the trade associations argued that if the price of tobacco products spikes, buyers would move to the tobacco black market where sellers don’t abide by standard regulations and often prey on young people. 

“When the price of a product rises too much too fast, illicit purveyors will seize the opportunity to exploit and take advantage of current users and entice new users without discriminating based on age,” the letter read. “This undermines the responsible measures our retailers have taken and creates a problem for society as a whole.” 

The warning is one of the most public cases of pushback from the tobacco industry as it finds itself once more being targeted by Congress. For years, lawmakers have scrutinized the industry over its marketing that targets young adults and children. Numerous state and federal legislative initiatives have been launched to clamp down on tobacco, including by taxing its products, as Democrats have proposed to do as part of Biden’s social spending bill. 

Still, the use of tobacco products among minors remains widespread. Late last month, the Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a study that found an estimated 11.3 percent of high school students reported using e-cigarettes within the last 30 days. (Read more)

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