Build Back Better agenda depends a lot on smokers and their compulsive habit.
Smoking generates tax revenue — lots of it.
Part of the theory is that high taxes, restrictions on advertising, research on the deleterious health effects of smoking, and the cultural stigma surrounding smoking will wean Americans off tobacco, but too much success on that front also will dry up big tax revenue.
As part of the package of funding measures, the administration had sought to raise federal taxes on cigarettes by 50 percent and on other tobacco products like dipping tobacco by 1,600 percent. Today, the federal tax on cigarettes is $1.01 per pack while the average state tax is $1.81 per pack. That proposal got dropped — but then the Build Back Better plan went after electronic cigarettes and other nicotine products. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) told Fox News’ Bret Baier that a nicotine tax “doesn’t make any sense to me whatsoever” because it just makes poor people poorer. On top of that, the administration’s plan would tax the products where technology stands a chance of reducing harm, like some e-cigarettes. It’s like taxing windmills instead of coal plants.
Steve Clemons – The Hill – 2021-11-11