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How much tax do you put on sin? President Clinton, now asking for a sin tax from Congress, is saying it should be set at 55 cents per tab.
Whoa! Let’s back up here! Just what kind of sin are we talking about? Who is going to pay this tax? And just what in the world is the tax for?
First off, Clinton, sitting in the White House, without an intern it’s now presumed, is asking Congress to approve a 55-cent sin tax on the purchase of each pack of cigarettes to help pay for the federal budget.
Fifty-five cents per pack? Yep! Here in the Chicago area, a pack of generic cigarettes costs $2.45. With tax added on, it’s $2.72. That is for a pack of those low-cost generic smokes. For a pack of
name brand cigarettes, last time I priced them, they were selling for $3.45 per pack. I didn’t bother to check the total with tax. Sorry. I imagine with tax, it would probably be right around $3.85 or so. That’s four bucks for a pack of smokes, people!
Let’s do some basic math here. $4 divided by 20 cigarettes. That’s 20 cents per cigarette as it is right now. Add on another 55 cents in tax. That would bring the price per pack of name brand cigarettes up to $4.55 or so. That’s 23 cents per smoke. The price we were paying for a nickel’s worth of candy bar back in the 80s. Now that it’s the 90s, we pay 75 cents for the same nickel’s worth of chocolate.
Let’s assume Clinton has a brain. Let’s assume that brain is not on drugs. It’s safe and preserved in its shell. Based on the above mathematical calculation, what do you see? A sudden decline in the
number
So what’s got Clinton so fired up about this tax? He is once again arguing with Congress, trying to turn the pressure up in efforts to produce a balanced budget. But with an Oct. 21 deadline looming for a budget, Clinton is suggesting that Congress re-examine his plan to raise the tobacco tax by 55 cents to pay for the budget without the country dipping its proverbial fingers into Social Security funds, using them as a slush fund of sorts.
Instead of across-the-board cuts of as much as six percent, as some Republican leaders have proposed, Clinton said: “I’d like to respectfully suggest that Congress go back and look at the budget I sent them seven months ago. It makes all the investments that they want to make and the investments that I believe in; it stays within the spending caps by providing offsets, including a 55-cent a pack excise tax on
tobacco.”
And Clinton said, "Congress now faces this, for them, difficult choice: cut investments in areas like health care and education and the environment; spend from the Social Security Trust Fund at least one more year or maintain our fiscal discipline and save children's lives by raising the price of smoking.''
In a recent speech before medical practitioners, Clinton laid out details of what he called
"this food fight in Washington'', explaining the difficulties currently facing the House as lawmakers attempt to craft the budget for the next fiscal year.
Congress, which was unable to reach agreement on the fiscal plan and appropriations bills for fiscal year 2000 before Oct. 1, passed a temporary funding measure to keep the government operating through Oct. 21. Lawmakers have passed seven of the 13 bills needed to fund the government; Clinton has signed four, vetoed one and two are pending.
Republicans are attempting to avert a $500 billion spending bill similar to the approved last December, a bill that few members of Congress actually read before it passed.
Facing expenditures that threaten to exceed self-imposed spending limits, Clinton said the lawmakers would have to dip into Social Security funds they have promised to keep in reserve.
Maybe Clinton has a “sin tax” category he would like to make a contribution to in effects to save time collecting the money from other “sinners”.
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"Clinton:
'Give Me My Sin Tax'"
