I appreciate all the time you take on these boards to make intelligent comments with no typos. I'm just a bad typer and quick to get as much out as possible. That said, take a look at Obama's first use of the Roberts Power. Since a tax is now penalty and vice versa, now for the first time the Feds can BAN something thru taxes. Their first choice is something easy like cigarettes just to see what happens. They now have their foot and the door and now can ban anything they want through a confiscatory tax. It used to be they couldn't do that because the taxes had to actually raise revenue. What's next, alcohol, semi-auto firearms, all firearms?
On Friday, President Barack Obama is expected to sign into law a federal highway bill with a section that redefines tobacco manufacturers to include any business with a roll-your-own cigarette machine and taxes those products at the same rate as packaged smokes.
The move comes a month after Illinois increased taxes on such roll-your-own machine-made cigarettes.
Marcia Smith, 47, of Lake County, decided after the state tax increase that she should move her Smokes & Such tobacco shops in Skokie and Gurnee to Wisconsin, where taxes on rolled cigarettes are lower.
If Obama signs the law, she said she’ll shut her doors.
The machines, which cost about $33,000 each, allow customers to pick their own tobacco and pour it into a device that can roll the tobacco into a carton, or about 200 cigarettes, within minutes.
Disclaimer: I do not smoke cigarettes. |
