Ore. cigarette tax rejected after spendy TV campaign

[Viva_La_Revolution]

Source: kgw.com


After a campaign marked by record amounts of tobacco industry money pouring into TV advertising, a cigarette tax increase to pay for children's health care was soundly defeated by Oregon voters in Tuesday's special election.

With 64 percent of the expected vote counted, Measure 50 was being rejected by a margin of 60 percent to 40 percent. Among Oregon's 36 counties, the cigarette tax passed only in populous Multnomah County, but was crushed in other places, particularly rural counties.

It was a stinging defeat for backers of the "Healthy Kids" plan. They had spent the campaign's final days going door-to-door, pleading with voters to ignore the cigarette makers' $12 million ad blitz and approve the increase to extend health coverage to 100,000 uninsured children.

Gov. Ted Kulongoski, a leading backer of the plan, said he still thinks most Oregonians support an expansion of children's health care but were heavily influenced by the cigarette makers' record-shattering advertising blitz.



Read more: http://www.kgw.com/sharedcontent/APStories/stories/D8SOKOM80.html

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Sorry Ted. I would have voted for it if more than 30% of the money went to those kids, and if you had not tried to put it in the state constitution.

[rwheeler31]

1. sad and dumb

[Viva_La_Revolution]

2. I'm guessing you didn't read the bill. nt

[seriousstan]

3. I agree, tax bad behavior into submission. Next the fat and then the drunk.

After those, I am taking suggestions.

[melody]

6. Tax the right-wing GOP n/t

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

11. The rich?

I know it sounds ridiculous...

[sandnsea]

14. Tax all sin, all at once

Alcohol, tobacco, firearms, fat, and sugar - then I'd be in agreement. We cannot continue to single out one group of the population when I know good and well fat and stress cause just as much illness as tobacco.

[Wcross]

23. Why are firearms a "sin"?

They are only a sin in the hands of a criminal. If you consider firearms a sin you should also include automobiles due to the drunk driving deaths they cause.

[sandnsea]

28. tobacco is only a sin

in the hands of a tobacco addict. Plenty of people only smoke the occasional cigar.

When people hurt with guns, it is almost always an irresponsible accident or "sin". Not true of cars. Besides, we already tax gas to pay for roads, otherwise I would have proposed a gas tax for health care.

[Wcross]

29. I disagree.

"When people hurt with guns, it is almost always an irresponsible accident" No, it is usually a criminal act.

[sandnsea]

30. "sin" = criminal act

Sorry I wasn't clearer. I just think we could expand cigarette taxes to the key causes of health care and guns is a cause of health care, especially expensive emergency room health care.

[Toots]

22. How do you propose dealing with bad behavior.

People learned a long time ago taking money from people for bad behavior works. People like their money. Would you suggest the courts give up on fining people for bad behavior?

[sandnsea]

4. If it was a tax that hit everyone

I never got that 30% thing. I just think we've hit smokers as much as we can. Time to figure out how to tax everybody. If there's a really good plan that's fair to everybody, I think people would even put it in the constitution.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

5. now that I could go for. nt

[rwheeler31]

7. why

[Viva_La_Revolution]

9. why? the thing that tipped me to voting no...

was when I found out the insurance industry was backing it.

[depakid]

8. It never stood a chance from day one.

When one side has all the money and monopolizes the airwaves- repeating lies and distortions ad nauseum- and the other side gets almost NO time on TV or radio- of course people are going to get conned.

Had there been equal time- had the fairness doctrine been applied, the measure would have passed by a comfortable margin. And tweaking could and would have come down the road- the way it always has- and just the way it was done with OHP (the Oregon Health Plan).

Instead, kids and families will continue to suffer- and the far right and their sycophants in the corporate media will make the whole deal out to be something completely different than it was.

[rAVES]

10. why should smokers bare the costs?

I don't get the logic here..

[depakid]

12. They don't and won't in terms of the larger program

and if you're looking for logic- and have ever traveled abroad, have a look at their tobacco taxes. In Britain and Oz, for example, they come out to about $10.00 per pack.

As always, Americans are by far the least taxed peoples in the Western world- yet they whinge about it constantly- even at the expense of their own childrens' health, education and welfare. People in other nations have no problem whatsoever with funding healthcare via these means. Indeed, my friends overseas thought measure 50 was a no brainer-

And considering the lengths that tobacco companies go to in order to addict teenagers to nicotine- along with the multitude of health problems it causes, I can hardly think of a MORE logical source of revenue. It ties DIRECTLY into the harm caused by producing, marketing and distributing the product (economists call these sorts things "externalities) which the companies pawn off to everyone else in society.

Kinda like reverse socialism. Privatize the profits- socialize the true costs of production.

[Pastiche423]

13. Maybe because our lawmakers in Salem

are stupid?

It makes no sense to me to tax something (again) that lawmakers claim they want people to quit. If people did quit due to the high cost, then where would the revenue come from?

In 2002 a cigarette tax was passed resulting in an increase of $.60/pack. This tax was projected to bring in $30 million. It din't happen. Many smokers began buying their cigarettes at reservations or over the internet.

Sin taxes suck.

[physioex]

16. Correction...

Why should non-smokers bare the cost of a smokers healthcare?

[Wcross]

24. Have you already forgotten the "settlement"?

Tobacco companies paid an obscene amount of money to the states to settle the lawsuit. CORRECTION- Smokers paid that money as the tobacco companies just raised prices to cover the expense. Add in the state tax already imposed which is 1.18 per pack PLUS the .39 cent per pack tax imposed by the federal government. A pack a day smoker is paying 530 dollars a year in taxes over & above what a non smoker pays. The settlement money tacked on an extra dollar a pack to the retail cost. On average the average pack a day smoker is paying almost a thousand dollars a year premium for smoking.
Now smokers should pay EVEN more? To pay for insuring other people? No. Everyone should bear the burden of insuring children. It is in EVERYBODIES best interest to have these children insured so EVERYBODY should contribute.

[Kahuna]

18. Same here. Just shows once again how clueless the Dems are.

Then to here that Dem strategist trying to justify it on Hardball last night was truly sickening.

[nosmokes]

15. Measure 50 wasn't perfect but it was worth voting for.

Why not put an outrageous tax on cigarettes? It would certaainly price them right out of the range of kids and pretty much deny the tobacco industry new victims.My problems with the measure ere exactly the ones Michael Moore speelled out on Olberman tonight.And they're the same ones I have w/ every health care plan being offered up by every candidate. They all consist of half measures and still involve the insurance companies as a major player and they are the reason our health care system is in the fucking toilet right now! We're gonna wind up w/ some half-assed plan that isn't gonna work or anyone but the insurance companies and all th politician's will be getting cramps from patting themselves on the back and tooting their horns for *solving* another crisis. But M 50 was basically a good deal for Oregon.. and I can prove it.Just look at the $millions the tobacco industry poured into the state to defeat it.

[rucognizant]

19. I object!

This SMOKER, is working on children's book illustration. IF I STOP, the beautiful pictures stop as well! I am trying to produce BEAUTIFUL pictures, as the field seems to have descended into cartoony distorted, ugly illustrations which CAN"T BE GOOD for children's SELF ESTEME!
Been there done that 3 times!

As I am a 68 year old adult; ( WITH A GENETIC LIFE EXPECTANCY TO 80'S 90'S)I feel that I am entitled to make my OWN DECISION about my health, not be FORCED into it.
AND if I do stop smoking, I will very likely develop other weight related health problems, ( diabetes) which is more costly and more enduring, than smokers health related problems.)

HOW ABOUT A TAX ON THE ENVIRONMENTAL DISASTERS CREATED BY CORPORATIONS???
HOW ABOUT IF WE REVERSE THE 30 YEAR PASS GIVEN CORPORATE TAXES ON CORPORATIONS? ONCE THEY PAID 33% OF TAXES NATIONA;LY, NOW THEY ONLY PAY 13%!!!!!
HOW ABOUT TAXING HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP, IN YOUR CAMPBELLS TOMATO SOUP? ( AND MOST OTHER PROCESSED FOOD PRODUCTS YOU BUY)

YOU SMOKERS WITCH HUNTERS, ARE SHOWING YOUR PURITANICAL, AUTHORITARIAN BACKGROUND! Why don't you hang nooses in the trees in smokers yards?

[izquierdista]

17. The power of advertising

They had no chance. Tobacco companies have been masters of advertising for years, appealing to all sorts of emotions to get people to buy their lethal product. Even if there were rules in place that equalized the advertising monies, I would expect the tobacco merchants of death to win. They have crafted deceptive advertising to a fine art that Goebbels would be proud of.

Until and unless advertising is removed from politics and replaced with balanced presentations of the issues, expect people to vote for things that are not in their best interests. That's the purpose of advertising, to make you buy something that your rational mind tells you that you have no need for.

[sandnsea]

31. Just keep deluding yourself with that

and we will never get a health care plan passed. This failed because people will not pass unfair taxes. We either figure out a fair tax, or forget health care.

[Teaser]

20. "spendy?"

.

[rucognizant]

21. Here's a better idea!

Tax, coca-cola & pepsi products 61c on $5.00 comes out to .12c on each bottle!
There would be enough to cover medical insurance for all, not just poor kids!

After all.....these companies are where the tobacco companies were before the lawsuits, concealing their disastrous ingredients and methods! Sucking people in with their big ads!
Diet drinks that contain aspertame ( developed by Searle when Rummy was their CEO, back in the early 80's, when he was giving WMD's to Saddam.........................)
fills your body with formaldehide, while you are still living, walking around!
Energy drinks so high in caffine that it has sent users to hospitals!

[jobendorfer]

25. Oregon City/Clackamas County Fire District passed, but ...

The backstory: Oregon City had a sweetheart contract with the Clackamas County Fire District,
fire protection for this (small) city at rates so good the fire district was losing money
on the deal. The contract expires soon. So onto the ballot goes an initiative to have
Oregon City join the fire district, instead of just contracting with it, as the cheapest
option to keep coverage here.

It passed handily ... 76% to 24%.
Yessir, that's right. One in four voters voted ... no.

Okay.

This I gotta ask. What -- exactly -- is the thought process of the one in four?
I don't need fire protection?
Fuck everybody else, I'll buy my own?
Corporate fire departments are better than socialized fire departments?
We'll just mooch offa Clackamas County, they'll come if we call?

J.

[LanternWaste]

26. How dare the government...

How dare the government force me to spend more money in my quest to smell bad and die quicker...

:sarcasm:

[Exultant Democracy]

27. I'm not a fan of out of place state constitution tampering.