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On Morning Joe, Carlson compared cigarette taxes to Saudi Arabia "cut[ting] your hands off" if you steal

April 07, 2009 8:45 am ET

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    • Author by jjamele2880 (April 07, 2009 9:08 am ET)
         

      Trying to explain to these morons that

      A)  Cigarette smoking causes expensive illnesses that raise insurance rates and result in billions of dollars of lost worker production each year, and

      B) If you are going to impose taxes, you should impose them on LUXURIES before NECESSITIES,

      is clearly a waste of time.  All they know is that they want their cancer sticks, and if you tax them you are worse than Hitler.  Listen to that jackass "Cigar Dave" show sometimes- he basically equates cigar taxes with the Holocaust and loudly proclaims his God-given right to blow smoke into people's faces any time he chooses.

      There are all kind of nicotine-addiction treatments available, and they aren't expensive compared to the cost of cigarettes.  I'm so damned sick of these addicts whining that they ar being "discriminated against" because we are sick of paying for their drug of choice through higher insurance premiums, pollution, and lost work.

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    • Author by fishergirlusmc (April 07, 2009 10:47 am ET)
         
      If the government was really concerned about people smoking, how come they don't go to the tobacco growers and ask them if they would like to be subsidized to grow something else? They do it with farmers and I believe they do it in places like Columbia to stop growing cocoa plants. We could subsidize them to grow corn or wheat or sugar cane. They can use their farms for windmills. The reason they don't is because the government wants the TAXES they collect on cigarettes. How much revenue do you think the feds and states would lose ?
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      • Author by jjamele2880 (April 07, 2009 12:43 pm ET)
           

        So what's your point?  Should the government stop raising taxes on cigarettes to prove that it doesn't see cigarette taxes as a big money maker?  Do you really want the govt to buy out the cigarette companies by paying them to grow something else?

        Or do you want the govt to stop funding smoking-prevention programs?  It really doesn't make any sense for the govt not to tax a product that costs society such an incredible amount of money.  Are you really arguing that the govt WANTS people to keep smoking because of the revenue stream that comes from cigarette taxes? 

        Does the logic of the situation really escape you so much?  Cigarette smoking is a drain on the economy because smokers are a drain on productivity- they are sick more often, they die younger (and no, dying young does NOT mean they are less of a burden on the Social Security system, so please don't hand us that urban legend) and they make the people around them sick, too.  So if they are going to insist on smoking, they are going to have to pony up more money to make up for the extra burden they provide for the rest of us.  If they quit, they'll be less of a burden, so that's fine too.  Seems pretty simple to me.

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    • Author by LisaLV711 (April 07, 2009 12:36 pm ET)
         
      Oh, that's the same thing. Tucker Carlson, grow up!
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    • Author by LisaLV711 (April 07, 2009 12:42 pm ET)
         
      Between Tucker and Joe Scarborough, their ignorance behooves me! What a group. Joe goes off on a tangent because he doesn't think President Obama is "smart" enough to run this government and the mess the Republican'ts left it in. Why? Because he has never worked in the private sector! That's right. So if you, like a lot of us. have never worked in the private sector, then you couldn't possibly be smart enough to have the capacity of learning anything. I mean, really! Joe Scarborough, next to this Tucker guy, have to be the two most uneducated set of whatever they call themselves today, in the history of American politics. How can anybody be this ignorant? I would never hire, even in my government job, which is in the courts, which he claims he is an attorney, I would NEVER hire somebody that perpetuates ignorance. Clearly, education and experience in the private sector didn't do much for either one of these two.
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      • Author by jjamele2880 (April 07, 2009 12:46 pm ET)
           
        Not three months into a new Administration which follows eight years under a guy sold to us as a "Businessman" with a "Harvard MBA" and "real-world experience," and we are getting this "we need someone wiho's kept a payroll" crap again?  How bad do these people think our memories are?
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      • Author by lesterayers5936 (April 07, 2009 4:41 pm ET)
           
        i could not agree with you more.Joey talk like he knows everything .
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