Obama tax pledge up in smoke:

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

PROMISES, PROMISES: Obama tax pledge up in smoke

WASHINGTON (AP) - One of President Barack Obama's campaign pledges on taxes went up in puffs of smoke Wednesday.

The largest increase in tobacco taxes took effect despite Obama's promise not to raise taxes of any kind on families earning under $250,000 or individuals under $200,000.

This is one tax that disproportionately affects the poor, who are more likely to smoke than the rich.

To be sure, Obama's tax promises in last year's campaign were most often made in the context of income taxes. Not always.

"I can make a firm pledge," he said in Dover, N.H., on Sept. 12. "Under my plan, no family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase. Not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your taxes."

He repeatedly vowed "you will not see any of your taxes increase one single dime."

Now in office, Obama, who stopped smoking but has admitted he slips now and then, signed a law raising the tobacco tax nearly 62 cents on a pack of cigarettes, to $1.01. Other tobacco products saw similarly steep increases.

The extra money will be used to finance a major expansion of health insurance for children. That represents a step toward achieving another promise, to make sure all kids are covered.

Obama said in the campaign that Americans could have both—a broad boost in affordable health insurance for the nation without raising taxes on anyone but the rich.

His detailed campaign plan stated that his proposed improvement in health insurance and health technology "is more than covered" by raising taxes on the wealthy alone. It was not based on raising the tobacco tax.

The White House contends Obama's campaign pledge left room for measures such as the one financing children's health insurance.

"The president's position throughout the campaign was that he would not raise income or payroll taxes on families making less than $250,000, and that's a promise he has kept," said White House spokesman Reid H. Cherlin. "In this case, he supported a public health measure that will extend health coverage to 4 million children who are currently uninsured."

In some instances during the campaign, Obama was plainly talking about income, payroll and investment taxes, even if he did not say so.

Other times, his point appeared to be that heavier taxation of any sort on average Americans is the wrong prescription in tough times.

"Listen now," he said in his widely watched nomination acceptance speech, "I will cut taxes—cut taxes—for 95 percent of all working families, because, in an economy like this, the last thing we should do is raise taxes on the middle class."

An unequivocal "any tax" pledge also was heard in the vice presidential debate, another prominent forum.

"No one making less than $250,000 under Barack Obama's plan will see one single penny of their tax raised," Joe Biden said, "whether it's their capital gains tax, their income tax, investment tax, any tax."

The Democratic campaign used such statements to counter Republican assertions that Obama would raise taxes in a multitude of direct and indirect ways, recalled Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania.

"I think a reasonable person would have concluded that Senator Obama had made a 'no new taxes' pledge to every couple or family making less than $250,000," she said.

Jamieson noted GOP ads that claimed Obama would raise taxes on electricity and home heating oil. "They rebutted both with the $250,000 claim," she said of the Obama campaign, "so they did extend the rebuttal beyond income and payroll."

Government and private research has found that smoking rates are higher among people of low income.

A Gallup survey of 75,000 people last year fleshed out that conclusion. It found that 34 percent of respondents earning $6,000 to $12,000 were smokers, and the smoking rate consistently declined among people of higher income. Only 13 percent of people earning $90,000 or more were smokers.

Federal or state governments often turn for extra tax dollars to the one in five Americans who smoke, and many states already hit tobacco users this year. So did the tobacco companies, which raised the price on many brands by more than 70 cents a pack.

The latest increase in the federal tax is by far the largest since its introduction in 1951, when it was 8 cents a pack. It's gone up six times since, each time by no more than a dime, until now.

Apart from the tax haul, public health advocates argue that squeezing smokers will help some to quit and persuade young people not to start.

But it was a debate the country didn't have in a presidential campaign that swore off higher taxation.

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9...;show_article=1

[Ban Hammer 14,299]

thanks obama!

[Y's_habibitk 2]

Good 'ole "sin" taxes.

Well, we got hit with the fed AND additional state taxes today on cigs.

I have an idea KY, raise the state tax from 6 to 7% that will help close the deficit. Instead of raising cig taxes a total of 1.00 a pack and essentially forcing some people to quit smoking, in turn losing those tax dollars eventually.

touchy subject for me today

not to mention we are a tobacco state!

Edited April 2, 2009 by Y's_habibitk

[Sofiyya 1,687]

He's gonna pick pockets like a sloooow drip so people don't feel it all at once and don't raise hell about it.

Edited April 2, 2009 by Barza Woman

[fozzie 41]

Who gives a ####### about taxes on ciggies? Add some more for all I care. I hate the smell of smokers, its the most pointless of the addictive habits.

And who says poor people smoke more than rich people? I see plenty o' rich people smoking around NY.

Edit: I stand corrected. A CDC study I just googled says as education rises fewer people smoke. Also that Native Americans smoke the most - Obama must be racist too.

Edited April 2, 2009 by fozzie

[Scott & Lai 12]

He's gonna pick pockets like a sloooow drip so people don't feel it all at once and don't raise hell about it.

Yep....same reason we have taxes taken out of our paychecks, instead of getting a lump sum bill due on April 15.

[Ban Hammer 14,299]

Good 'ole "sin" taxes.

Well, we got hit with the fed AND additional state taxes today on cigs.

I have an idea KY, raise the state tax from 6 to 7% that will help close the deficit. Instead of raising cig taxes a total of 1.00 a pack and essentially forcing some people to quit smoking, in turn losing those tax dollars eventually.

touchy subject for me today

not to mention we are a tobacco state!

so how many statements has he backtracked on to date?

[Sofiyya 1,687]

He's gonna pick pockets like a sloooow drip so people don't feel it all at once and don't raise hell about it.

Yep....same reason we have taxes taken out of our paychecks, instead of getting a lump sum bill due on April 15.

I don't have that; I pay several lumps a year. If the rest of the country had to do that, there would be a revolution in no time!

[William33 110]

Interesting how the Philip Morris coupons are filling my mailbox at the moment... I am sure that won't last long.

[truffles 2]

Who gives a ####### about taxes on ciggies? Add some more for all I care. I hate the smell of smokers, its the most pointless of the addictive habits.

And who says poor people smoke more than rich people? I see plenty o' rich people smoking around NY.

Edit: I stand corrected. A CDC study I just googled says as education rises fewer people smoke. Also that Native Americans smoke the most - Obama must be racist too.

I don't smoke ..never have but I DO respect people's right to choose. My workplace designated an area ( outside) as a smokers area - my choice, if it bothered me is to not go near it! I hear arguments about how much smoke related diseases cost the healthcare industry - well given the tax hikes I think the smokers pay for it by the packet? Whats next - tax hikes on fast food outlets?

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

Who gives a ####### about taxes on ciggies? Add some more for all I care. I hate the smell of smokers, its the most pointless of the addictive habits.

And who says poor people smoke more than rich people? I see plenty o' rich people smoking around NY.

Edit: I stand corrected. A CDC study I just googled says as education rises fewer people smoke. Also that Native Americans smoke the most - Obama must be racist too.

I don't smoke ..never have but I DO respect people's right to choose. My workplace designated an area ( outside) as a smokers area - my choice, if it bothered me is to not go near it! I hear arguments about how much smoke related diseases cost the healthcare industry - well given the tax hikes I think the smokers pay for it by the packet? Whats next - tax hikes on fast food outlets?

Indian workers from India seem to smoke a lot more than American workers, in my experience. When I worked at another company some years ago, the top 2 floors were all workers from an Indian outsourcing firm working on our projects. At lunch time, lots of guys would stand outside the front entrance and smoke. I couldn't walk through the cloud of ####### they produced without wheezing for at least an hour after passing through. It got to the point where I just started working from home a lot.

[*Robert* 2]

Come on... a sin tax is not the same as an income tax.

Maybe he is trying to create incentives for him to quit smoking?!

Buying cigarettes and booze are a choice. The taxes he was referring to are the ones levied against EVERYONE.

Nice try.... NOT!

Edited April 2, 2009 by roi_aggie

[William33 110]

Come on... a sin tax is not the same as an income tax.

Maybe he is trying to create incentives for him to quit smoking?!

Buying cigarettes and booze are a choice. The taxes he was referring to are the ones levied against EVERYONE.

Nice try.... NOT!

Not sure he made that distinction in his speeches. This is just another avenue to tax and spend......More to come for sure.

[*Robert* 2]

Come on... a sin tax is not the same as an income tax.

Maybe he is trying to create incentives for him to quit smoking?!

Buying cigarettes and booze are a choice. The taxes he was referring to are the ones levied against EVERYONE.

Nice try.... NOT!

Not sure he made that distinction in his speeches. This is just another avenue to tax and spend......More to come for sure.

But we can't go forever without paying something! We can't keep getting Presidents that claim they will lower our taxes or won't raise our taxes, and then have everyone expect to get all the changes they want.

All these programs people want... COST MONEY!!! How the hell are all the things we love to have getting paid for? People need to start paying their fair share.

That reminds me... who was it who said "Read My Lips... No New Taxes!"

Keep throwing darts people!!! There's a pot out there with your name on it!

[William33 110]

Come on... a sin tax is not the same as an income tax.

Maybe he is trying to create incentives for him to quit smoking?!

Buying cigarettes and booze are a choice. The taxes he was referring to are the ones levied against EVERYONE.

Nice try.... NOT!

Not sure he made that distinction in his speeches. This is just another avenue to tax and spend......More to come for sure.

But we can't go forever without paying something! We can't keep getting Presidents that claim they will lower our taxes or won't raise our taxes, and then have everyone expect to get all the changes they want.

All these programs people want... COST MONEY!!! How the hell are all the things we love to have getting paid for? People need to start paying their fair share.

That reminds me... who was it who said "Read My Lips... No New Taxes!"

Keep throwing darts people!!! There's a pot out there with your name on it!

Cannot argue these points....