It was April Fool's Day on smokers!

While on the campaign trail, Senator Barack Obama promised that he would cut taxes for 95% of all Americans. Obviously, all smokers are un-American because he recently increased taxes on cigarettes. On April 1st, the federal cigarette tax will increase by 62 cents to a total of $1.01 per pack, to fund the expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program...(1) S-CHIP was originally designed to provide health care only to poor families. Now it has been expanded to the middle class.

According to a survey commissioned by the marketers of Nicorette, smokers are very concerned about the price of cigarettes. (2) 56% of smokers say the April 1st price increase will prompt them to smoke fewer cigarettes and 72% say the price increase on cigarettes would increase their intention to quit. (3) 47% of smokers say they would cut back on cigarettes because of the economy. (4) Fox News also reported that poorer people are more likely to smoke than weal-thier people. This is wealth redistribution in reverse because the poor are paying for health care for the middle class. These poor people are the ones who put President Obama into office. To add insult to injury, they can't even enjoy a fine Cuban cigar because of the Cuban trade embargo. Speaking of cigars, Fox News reporter Phil Keating stated that the tax on cigars went up 700% - from 5 cents to 40 cents per cigar.

"Research shows that smokers are more likely to try to quit when the price of cigarettes goes up," said Dr. Frank Chaloupka, professor of economics at the University of Illinois at Chicago

and affiliate of the National Bureau of Economic Research. "Given the recent tax hike and the state of the economy, now would be a great time for smokers to re-evaluate how smoking affects their finances and calculate how much they could save by quitting. A typical pack-a-day smoker

could be spending approximately $2,000 each year on cigarettes, but no matter how expensive

it is to smoke, quitting smoking is a big challenge." (5)

Did you catch that last sentence? It now costs about $6 for a pack of cigarettes thanks to taxes.

The percentage of those who smoke has been going down for several years. When these poor smokers start dying off without having as many people to replace them, what happens to S-CHIP? The politicians will then increase the cigarette tax again very soon and very steeply. I find it tragically ironic that Republicans as well as Democrats pushed for this tax increase on a very unhealthy habit to pay for health care for others. Yet these are the same politicians who will probably increase funding for smoking cessation programs. Can't they make up their minds?

Either way, the taxpayers are the fools because the joke's on us. I hope all of you will have a happy Tea Party Day tomorrow. In the meantime, we need all you smokers to light up so the government can pay for health care. This includes you, President Obama.

G.J. LaRouche, 14 April 2009

1-5. Source: www.medicalnewstoday.com, "Federal Cigarette And Current Economy Will

Change Smoker's Habits.