JM excerpt:Times have changed – not Doyle. Doyle’s statement proves how difficult this issue is, he knows that a low cigarette tax only makes it easier for people to smoke, an indefensible position for the state to maintain. And he knows that it is indefensible for the state to rely on revenue raised by hiking taxes on something as indefensible as cigarette smoking. Because of the times, Doyle was smart to veto this hike in 2003, but even smarter to propose the hike in 2007.
Such a tax hike, Doyle said at the time,” puts the state in the very untenable position in which we want people to smoke, and (we) become reliant on that money.”
Just for fun, I’m going to use the same rhetoric President Bush and Rep. Paul Ryan use to support their taxcuts as a fair analogy to support the Wisconsin cigarette tax increase. As you probably know by now, the GOP wants to make all the Bush tax cuts permanent and to my dismay, it appears some Democrats have bought into their reasoning. The reasoning of course is the idea that the taxcuts have, counter-intuitively by the way, produced more revenue for the government – to spend, so therefore we must make them permanent. Now lets turn to the cigarette tax and apply the same logic. Since the Governor implies that the motivation to increase the tax is health based, if he were to cut the current cigarette tax, more people will smoke and the state will collect more revenue – to spend. That's what a tax cut does, according to the GOP.
But instead, the Governor wants to increase the tax, thereby encouraging people to smoke less, and thereby, returning less revenue to the state. That's what a tax increase does, according to the GOP. Well, we know things don’t work that way, but that is what the GOP would want us to believe, so long as its their tax policy.
Regarding the Bush tax cut however, supporters also link it to our growing economy and decreasing the national deficit. However it appears that whatever life our economy has shown since 9-11, it happened despite the Bush tax cuts and one could only speculate now how much greater things would be if the taxcuts, particularly to the top 5% never happened. We might have a budget surplus today, an economy more than just struggling to hold its head above water, and God forbid, more money for the government to spend.
11 comments:
Thge taxhike on cigarettes in going to hurt poor people more than it's going to hurt people more fortunate. People on fixed incomes will be hurt by this tax. The tax cuts give people more money to spend the way they feel they need to spend it. Thus spending more on things they need/want they end up paying taxes on the products they buy so, the giovernment makes more revenue while the taxpayer brings home more of their paycheck. Putting a tax on a certain product isn't going to curb people from smoking. Smoking is an addiction and wouldn't be curbed because people have to pay more for it that's just foolish thinking. It's going to make people make hard choices. Do they spend more money for the cigarettes that their body craves and relies on or do they buy dipers for their baby? Doyle always says he doesn't want to disefranchise the poor people but, that's exactly what will happen if this tax hike goes through. Maybe we should tax pornography to curb the sexual predators. Tax alcohol to curb alcoholism. Tax food to curb obesity. It makes no sense to try and tax people from smoking it's foolish.
Looks to me like Doyle's supporters are getting very practiced at twisted logic and rationalization. Not an admirable skill to master.
Its GOP logic, you should be used to it.
You hit the nail on the head with the GOP! They have brainwashed people into believing perpetual tax cuts give people more money to spend which then returns more money to the government, growing our treasury and economy out of debt. It only works to spur a lifeless economy. The GOP have been trying to spur this economy for the past 15 years. It is twisted logic.
Look at the economy now. It's working. Pull your head out of the sand and actually look at the numbers. Heck ya have a computer us it.
The treasury is bankrupt, school board deficits are everywhere, every facet of government whether state, city or Federal are facing shortfalls. The word surplus is obsolete. The only way government, any government pays their bills is through the collection of taxes. If we can't raise the taxes to pay the bills during a good working economy - when can we?
Your good working economy is producing debt and deficit everywhere, even in our homes. Meanwhile Bush appointees lose track of $12 billion in Iraq.
If Bill Gates and 29 of us are in one room, our average net worth is over $50 billion dollars.
Gee, it feels great to be in that crowd - doesn't it?
Meanwhile, the 29 of us have next to nothing.
That's why Bush's economy means nothing.
Yeah the economy is a complete mess. We need more taxes to keep the social programs a float in thei country. What we need is more programs to teach teenage girls how to be parents. We need schools to offer breakfast for the students. It shouldn't be the parents job to feed the kids breakfast. I want the government to take more money out of my paycheck every week. I want the government in every aspect of my life I want the to tell me what to eat and what's not good for me. I want them to take as much money as they need from me. The government knows better than me of how to spend my money.
The economy really is a COMPLETE MESS, and we don't even know the half of it. I want the government to stay out of my personal life, but unless you are a billionaire, the money in your pocket right now, no matter how hard you worked for it - belongs to the government. It's part of the 9 trillion dollars of debt your elected representatives rang up in your name. Bush alone rang up over 1 trillion. It's essentially BORROWED money. When are you going to pay it back!
I have less taxes taken out of my paycheck since Bush took office and I am far from a billionaire. Am I missing something?
you've been missing the annual $300 billion deficits that would be $400 billion deficits if the taax cut was larger. But, who really cares about the country.
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