The world is upside down. The delusional people of California actually rejected a new tax. Oh the poor cancer patients!!!!
The ridiculousness of these taxes and the gullibility of liberal minded people is breathtaking. These dim bulbs wanted to increase cigarette taxes so they could stop people from smoking and transfer millions into the coffers of the Cancer Industry so they can build palaces and pay administrators millions to shuffle papers and beg for more money.
These do-gooders ignore the fact that poor people smoke at a much higher rate than rich people. They would be further impoverishing these nicotene addicted poor people to fund their palaces. Brilliant. They could then create a new program to subsidize the poor for their cigarette purchases.
California voters reject cigarette tax
CNN Wire Service TownNews.com
Voters in California have rejected an effort to raise taxes on cigarettes to pay for cancer research, according to results the state published Wednesday.
The final tally was 50.8% against the proposal compared with 49.2% in favor of Proposition 29, which supporters said would have raised $735 million a year. About three-quarters of that money raised would go to cancer research.
Supporters had touted it as an initiative to help those with cancer.
“The American Cancer Society, the American Heart Association and the American Lung Association wrote the initiative carefully,” Lori Bremner of the American Cancer Society had told CNN’s “Sanjay Gupta MD.”
“The money is going to be invested in cancer research here in California and on tobacco prevention and cessation programs to protect kids and reduce smoking here in California.”
Studies show the tax will help decrease smoking and save lives, she said.
Opponents had slammed the tax as a misguided burden in an already tough economy.
“What we’re seeing in the state of California is a lot of frustration on the part of our citizenry that it’s just another tax,” said Dr. Marcy Zwelling, a general practitioner. The tax, she said in an interview with CNN, “goes to build bigger bureaucracy, build business, build buildings, not necessarily to go to cancer research.”
The opposition in California was fueled by a huge influx of cash from big tobacco. About $47 million was raised in efforts — including TV advertising — to defeat “Prop. 29,” including $27.5 million from Philip Morris and $11 million from R.J. Reynolds, according to figures from MapLight, a nonpartisan research firm.
About $12 million was raised in support of the initiative, including $8.5 million from the American Cancer Society and $1.5 million from the Lance Armstrong Foundation, known as Livestrong. Armstrong himself appeared in ads urging people to “vote yes on 29.” (Gupta, CNN chief medical correspondent, is a board member of the foundation.)
There is already an 87-cent tax on each pack of cigarettes in California.
According to California’s official voter guide, the health groups behind Prop. 29 say it will “save lives, stop kids from smoking, and fund cancer research,” while those opposed say the initiative “doesn’t require revenue be spent in California to create jobs or fund schools.”
Bremner insists the campaign against Prop. 29 has traded in “deceptions.” The biggest misconception is that the money collected “will be somehow wasted or used otherwise,” she said.
But Zwelling says it will heavily affect poorer Americans, who are more likely to smoke. And other efforts, including the state’s ban on smoking in public places, have succeeded at pushing people to quit smoking, she says.
John Seffrin, CEO of the American Cancer Society, says if the bill passes, “It would make California the second-largest funder of cancer research after the (National Cancer Institute) in the entire country.”
Some grant proposals that currently go unfunded would find a source of revenue, he said.
“So, it’s a tremendous opportunity for California to do the right thing — not only for California, but for the whole world.”
— CNN’s Caleb Hellerman, Nadia Kounang and Josh Levs contributed to this report.
ThePessimisticChemist says:
I hate these loaded bills. What, you are FOR cancer? SHAME ON YOU! No dumbass, I’m not. I’m also not for ridiculous taxes on already overtaxed goods.
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6th June 2012 at 11:51 am
Colma Rising says:
Yes, cigarette taxes, hiked tolls and sales taxes are regressive.
Don’t get the wrong idea, folks. Stay away.
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6th June 2012 at 12:39 pm
sensetti says:
Colma what’s goin on out there? Is Cali turning into a red state?
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6th June 2012 at 12:41 pm
sensetti says:
It’s that Fukushima radiation setting in I guess.
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6th June 2012 at 12:51 pm
Wyoming Mike says:
The pro-tax advocates were on TV all day every day on my L.A. feed pushing that crap. Good for the Calians!
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6th June 2012 at 1:20 pm
Stan says:
California has already reached ”peak tax’. They say no mas!!!
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6th June 2012 at 1:37 pm
Kill Bill says:
Why do smokers need research when they know what killed them? They arent THAT stupid,
Get em to buy scratch offs instead.
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6th June 2012 at 1:57 pm
Colma Rising says:
Sensetti:
California tends to vote conservatively on ballot measures. The courts tend to toss them often, however.
Anyway, I was holding off on buying a new thumb ring just in case the tax passed. I like to buy coffee at the coffee shack, and picked up the habit last fall semester.
Now I can look hellsa cool sitting around and handing out “The Case For Socialism” fliers, thanks to the wisdom of California voters.
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6th June 2012 at 2:04 pm
Maddie's Mom says:
Here’s some cancer research…for free:
STOP SMOKING!!!
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6th June 2012 at 6:00 pm
Kathrin says:
I just wanted to thank you for writing this article on Dumbasses. I liked reading it. Best wishes, Kathrin
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6th June 2012 at 9:43 am