By Douglas V. Gibbs
Liberalism always results in unintended consequences that in reality contradicts what liberals are trying to do. Taxation is a great example. Higher taxes result in less activity of the item being taxed, therefore resulting in less revenue.
Sometimes, tax hikes result in illegal activity too!
In New York the cigarette taxes have become so high that now there is a black market. The whole point of raising the cigarette tax was to raise revenue, or at least encourage people to quit through such a punitive taxation plan. The hike in taxes resulted in neither. Instead, the progressives in New York have created crime. Smokers have gotten to the point that they are willing to run the risk of buying black market cigarettes, rather than pay these exorbitant prices, which are due totally to the ridiculous tobacco taxes.
If the progressives in New York really wanted to raise revenue off of cigarettes they'd cut taxes. Less expensive cigarettes would have resulted in an increase in sells, and they would have collected more revenue.
This reality reveals the real reason for the taxation. As with everything else associated liberalism, the high taxes on cigarettes is a control mechanism. They have done all they can to create this notion that tobacco is a killer, and they are telling us that part of their strategy of taxing the cigarettes is to punish smokers for daring to not follow their dictate (which is insidious enough as it is). But in reality, the last thing that the federal government wants is for people to stop smoking. They know people just can't. They know we're dealing here with an addiction. Nicotine is the most addictive drug on earth, though it is not a criminal addiction. So, the progressive liberal scum knows nobody's going to quit smoking.
This is all about power for the liberal Democrats. Remember, if they really cared about raising revenue they would lower the taxes on cigarettes. They want the power to determine if you smoke, how much you smoke, and making themselves look like they care about your health, even though in reality to the ruling class you are nothing more than a stupid peasant. In reality, they could care less if you live or die.
Warfare politics is about getting votes, about pitting one group of Americans against another. Here, they pit the smokers against the non-smokers, demonizing smokers as much as they can, so that non-smokers will vote Democrat because "at least they care enough to try to get these poor people to quit smoking."
Forget what your individual decision may be. If the Democrats say stop smoking, you will stop, or become the enemy, and suffer their wrath.
The real danger is that the real believers in liberalism believe that controlling people, forcing them to change their behaviors like this, is a good thing. They truly think it means doing such totalitarian things through an oppressive government makes them more moral than you. I smoked for twenty-one years, and quit in 2005. But it was my decision I made because of my own personal reasons. If smoking is unhealthy, then fine, tell me it's unhealthy, but don't take actions to force me to quit smoking. For an item that is legal to use, that is my own personal decision.
Remember, they don't want to force you, if you smoke, to quit smoking because they care, only because they want to create warfare between you and non-smokers for political reasons.
The Black Market, however, caught them off guard. They didn't expect that the results of their punitive taxation would be people still smoking, and also the government leftists losing revenue because less cigarettes are being bought legally.
The same thing happened in Washington State, and the same thing happened nearly thirty years ago.
That is what failures do. They act in a liberal manner, even though history proves them to be idiots. That's because the result, the black market, the rise in crime, is not their concern. They only wish to create warfare, to produce votes, to increase their power. . . simple as that.
-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary
Black Market Cigarettes Cost New York $20M a Month - Fox Business
New cigarette tax driving more smokers to black market - KING 5 Seattle
High New York cigarette taxes result in smuggling - The Free Market Foundation
New York's Deadly Cigarette Tax - Cato Institute
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