Stop a 775% Tax Increase on Pipe Tobacco!

[WebWench]

H.R. 4439, the Tobacco Tax Parity Act of 2010 was introduced on January 13, 2010 and would raise the tax on pipe tobacco 775% from $2.8311 to $24.78 per pound.

read more here:
http://pipesmagazine.com/blog/pipe-news/stop-the-pipe-tobacco-tax/

Some comments made to the blog post I thought were interesting, below:

They are doing this because RYO cigarette companys have been selling their tobacco in a longer cut and calling it pipe tobacco to get by unfair RYO cigarette tax. They just raised Pipe tobacco to the RYO tax rate. And they orignally raised the RYO rate because people stopped buying packs because rolling your own was so much cheaper. They are not going to just stop this tax. They want their cigarette smoker dollars. It would probably be more successfull to suggest they pass stricter restrictions on what is classified as “pipe tobacco” so RYO cigarette tobacco can’t be passed off as pipe tobacco instead of passing this increase, because there is no way they are just going to say goodbye to all that tax money they have come to rely on from cigarette smokers.

It is not a revenue raising effort. It is a stop smoking effort. The liberals in congress want to run your life, and they have deemed that smoking anything is bad for you. Since we do not listen when they tell us to stop, they figure they will force us to stop by making pipe tobacco so expensive, we will stop buying it.

The best way to combat this is to stop electing liberals to public office. They will always try to use “big government” to take away individual rights.

[Gandolf]

Thanks

We should all be signing the petition at this site.

[Blacksmith]

They wised up  quicker than expected...

[Themayor]

When the Constitution was formed -our nation's forefathers were smoking Pipe tobacco from clay pipes-not cigs or doobies! They fought a war over taxation without representation. Our Congress should recognize the difference between pipe tobacco and RYO stuff. Perhaps the dealers should refuse to buy and resell RYO tobacco. If you put balloons on bicycle spokes it does not make it a motorbike. We need someone to champion our cause. I nominate Larry- he is the ultimate pipesmoker, he has the legal background AND he was there when they signed the Constitution-makes sense to me!

Themayor                             

[Gandolf]

At the February meeting we should draft a letter for our members to sign.

[Themayor]

Your Letter to Congress


William, thanks for taking action on behalf of Stop the Pipe Tobacco Tax. Your emails are on the way to Capitol Hill.

An individual copy of your letter will be sent to each official:

February 2, 2010

Dear Representative Murphy,
Dear Senator Schumer,
Dear Senator Gillibrand,

H.R. 4439, the Tobacco Tax Parity Act of 2010 was introduced on January 13, 2010 and would raise the tax on pipe tobacco 775% from $2.8311 to $24.78 per pound.

Introduced by Representatives Steve Cohen (Dem., TN) and Lloyd Doggett (Dem., TX), it has been referred to the House Ways and Means Committee of which Mr. Doggett is a member.

I am writing to express concern about this bill.

I want you to vote NO to H.R. 4439.

This bill punishes pipe smokers and retail tobacconists. It will destroy an industry of pipe craftsmen, small farmers, tobacco blenders and retailers. Pipe smoking is an historical, time-honored tradition in America that goes back to colonial days.

This is nothing more than an attempt to rope in taxes from roll-your-own cigarette tobacco. The roll-your-own industry has re-labeled cigarette tobacco as pipe tobacco to be taxed at a much lower rate.

This is not the way to fix that problem. For those of us that enjoy real pipe tobacco, this is unfair. A tax increase of 775% on anything is ludicrous. This will kill many small businesses and an historical tradition.

Many honorable people smoked a pipe including; State Senator Millicent Fenwick, President Gerald R. Ford, General Douglas McArthur, Albert Einstein and many more.

The signers of this petition are telling the congressmen and senators that we want them to vote NO on H.R. 4439.

Enough is enough-pipesmokers do not inhale- they are in general intelligent productive individuals and should not be classified with cigarette smokers-AND WE VOTE!

Sincerely,

Hon. William XXXX
XXXX XXXXX XXXXX
XXXXX, NY XXXXX

This was a form letter we can add to and send free of charge -was on the Pipes and Tobacco website

Themayor                    

[WebWench]

**pulls on Admin hat**

It is not recommended that any forum member include personal information such as full name and street address in their posts to this forum.

In the interest of protecting our member's privacy, I will continue to edit posts to mask such information.

If you have any questions regarding this policy, please contact me.

**takes off Admin hat**

Sorry Bill! *wide grin*

[Gandolf]

Thanks Mayor.

We all have different congress persons so make sure you write to the right one or to the left one depending on their political persuasion.