The U.S. Senate attempts to destroy the cigar industry

Earlier this week I got word that the U.S. Senate was proposing a punitive tax, primarily on cigars. The current federal excise tax is limited to $0.05 per cigar, but the new bill seeks to raise that amount by a factor of over 20,000%. Large cigars (the kind I prefer, churchill sized, or double corona), would have a tax of up to $10.00 levied, PER STICK.

The excuse for the destruction of an entire U.S. industry is that it's "for the children". Like all poor legislation, destructive and ineffective taxes like this are masked by being "good for the children". The idea is that the federal government will raise huge amounts of money to fund states' child healthcare programs by "soaking" us cigar smokers.

So our government continues to advance its Robin Hood agenda, stealing from those who have managed to scrape together a few extra bucks and wish to enjoy a good smoke, and re-distributing to the charity of their choice (in this case the welfare state, the least effective of them all).

Well if it would work, it would be needed, since thousands of U.S. workers will be laid off if this tax passes. Of course it won't work, because cigars would just go black market. Got a contact in Honduras? (I do). Just call him and have him cut the pages out of a book and ship you home some good Hoyo de Moneterey excaliburs for a few limpuras. Most of us don't mind paying a reasonable excise tax on all of our luxuries, but this tax is an INSULT.

Please call your U.S. Senators TODAY and tell them this bill is a bad idea. It doesn't matter if you partake in fine tobacco or not. The crosshairs will be on you soon enough. And even if not, this is just bad policy. It will not raise much revenue, it is guaranteed to create a black market, and it will destroy an industry that employs thousands of Americans.