"I can make a firm pledge. Under my plan, no family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase. Not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your taxes."  Then-Sen. Barack Obama in a speech in Dover, N.H., 9/12/2008

For people who smoke, these are not happy days. Most people have likely heard about Pres. Obama's broke tax pledge, landing on April Fools Day, of all days. What most people who don't smoke don't realize is how far-reaching this $6.20 per carton tax on cigarettes has done to the cigarette market. Anticipating this tax hike, Phillip Morris (maker of Marlboros) and R.J. Reynolds (maker of Camels) jacked up their carton prices by $15.

Why'd they do this? Because they realize a lot more people are about to quit smoking, so they had to get the revenue while they could.

So, to review:  because Pres. Obama broke his pledge not to raise taxes on people making less than $250,000 a year (or, according to Veep Biden, $150,000 or $200,000 per year, depending on his mood) is responsible for the price of cigarettes increasing as much as 90 percent, depending on where a person lives.  What can one say to this? Nothing, of course, becuase this is the Administration that doesn't listen to anyone at any time, and it has broken more promises in three months than the Bush Administation did in eight years.

What does one want to say? Cigarette smokers are easy, because the act of smoking is addictive. This isn't a woe-is-me thing, though it is annoying that my cigarettes that cost $32 a carton a month ago now costs $52. I got my first round of sticker shock when they increased from $32 to $46, and on Friday, when I buy my next carton, the shock-and-awe of Hopenchange will resonate.

I am against all regressive taxes, including the sales tax - especially on clothing and groceries - because the less a person makes the more it affects their income.  The Devil's Advocate will no doubt say, "But isn't getting people to stop smoking a good thing?" I would say, without hesitation, no, it is not.  We can't smoke in most hotel rooms, most restaurants, most bars, no public buildings and on an increasing number of college campuses.

Overall, I have no problems with public buildings because they are run by the government, and of state-funded schools. Yet most of the places smoking is banned is not only by law, it is law telling private business owners that they can't allow a legal activity to take place on their premises.  The secret grows dirtier, though, because tax revenue from tobacco sales are used, in bulk, to fund healthcare for freeloaders. One of the great standard laws of economic cause and effect with regards to taxation is about to felt by an Administration that sees the future as nothing but rosy when predicting how much money the State will actually bring in through its taxes: tax revenue from the sale of cigarettes is about to plummet.

It is one of the most basic rules of economics and of government. If the State wants to see a decrease in any activity, it needs only to tax it. It can be the smoking of cigarettes or it can be the act of work. Just as fewer people will be smoking than ever before next week because of this tax, fewer people will be working more and more to pay for all the other Ponzi schemes this Administration is heaping upon the country. 

Adding to the unintended consequence of rapidly declining tax revenue, the Administration has opened the door for much cheaper cigarettes. How so? Because today, a black market opened up for cheap cigarettes, and the people who have the resources to bootleg cigarettes from within or without are set to make a fortune. It costs cigarette-makers $2 to make and market a pack of cigarettes, while the State gobbles up $5. There's a lot of room to play with for people who don't feear the consequences of a cigarette truck. 

Feel free to spit on smokers - to many we're more dangerous than pedophiles teaching preschool. Yet when the tax revenue from cigarettes starts falling, other vices will soon feel the chill. I think alcohol is next in line, though goodness knows there's nothing smug lifestyle police hate more than the McDonald's around the corner. They're not giving up free healthcare for freeloaders, as that's the base of the Democrat party. The taxman's coming for what you enjoy - black cars, white rum or strawberry shakes - just pick your poison.