The Clarion-Ledger
February 22, 2008
This article discusses a bill in Mississippi that has just been passed by the House of Representatives. This article was well researched and compared the actions of Mississippi to other state's that have already enacted high tobacco taxes. Right now Mississippi's tobacco tax is 18 cents, the new bill proposes to raise this tax to $1.18. Although this is a large increase, the author points out that Mississippi's tax on tobacco is the third lowest in the nation. This article was calling its readers to take action on this matter and to contact their local Senate members to urge them to vote on this bill. The extra revenue from this tax would go to help fund Mississippi's Medicaid program. This article employed mainly logical and emotional appeals. This was a very good article and made a very good appeal for you to go contact your local Senate members.
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5 comments:
I think it's a good idea to raise the tax on tobacco. I think it's a pointless product, but I can understand that some people like to smoke or dip. Maybe raising the taxes on tobacco will prevent kids and people with low income to not waste their money on cigarettes and go do something productive with their life. If the money is going to health care, then that's even better because it's helping people.
It's a great idea. It might deflect people from these products. Also if the money goes to medicade, it will help those who smoke because a lot of people who have felt the effects of tobacco products.
As a smoker, I'm going to go ahead and admit that I am definitely biased, but seriously I cannot justify raising taxes on JUST cigarettes. You're taxing one demographic subset to pay for the medical care of the entire population. I don't like candy, I don't eat candy, candy is not healthy for you, obesity and diabetes is the new number one health problem of our age group, but I'm not bothering anyone about their candy consumption. I wont be yelling when my taxes are being used to pay for their diabetes medicine, thats what medicare was set into place for. I don't really think the article proposed both sides of the argument equally or even logically. Had a little logic been involved the writer would have realized that this is a HUGE argument and a little bit of both viewpoints would have been a good thing.
Although I am not completely opposed to the argument of raising the tax on tobaccoo, I also dont see the point. If the argument is to reduce health and decrease the death toll then there are thousands of other things that should be taxed. I agree with the previous comment and think that the tax is a little bias and unnecessary.
The extra money from the taxes are going to have to go to medicade to take care of the smokers when they develop cancer. I know the taxes on tobacco bring in a lot of money, but i think they just need to ban smoking altogether.
They can justify taxing tobacco products because it affects everyone. If i eat candy and get really fat, it isn't going to affect you. However, if we are around smokers, then it raises our chances of developing cancer.
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