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H.R. 1676, The PACT Act
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Smoking MAD
May 8, 2009, 1:34pm (report abuse)NO NO NO...we don't need to create another prohibited substance...to create more black markets...stop the insanity...tobacco smokers already pay enough already...and many still pay alot buying their tobacco online...and they don't get health care anyways...and its only 1 in 10 smokers who develop cancer. And what about the risks of Alcohol you bunch of alcoholics in congress. And besides congress needs to legalize Marijuana to combat risks of cancers in the first place. I'm sick of these legistaltors who try to create black markets by prohibition of procucts...leave the tobacco smokers alone already. Don't they pay enough...how about taxing YOUR BELOVED BOTTLE OF BOOZE...tax the hell out of it instead!!! Create more jails and put all Americans to death isn't that what YOU really want to achieve...less population to fight global warming you bunch of idiots...spraying our skys NON STOP...to kill the population>>>and picking on smokers...shame shame...NO TO THIS BILL!!!
carie farr
May 20, 2009, 9:01am (report abuse)This bill is nothing more than raising cigarette prices 5,000 percent in 6 years, and forcing local people in thier respective states to pay insanely high taxes,or quit. Well they will quit, and the schip bill for children will not be funded. Almost all websites online require identification before product is sold. Unemployment? This bill will put at least another 15000 folks out of work. What will be next? Whatever the government chooses. The states ran up thier deficites, and whatever is not popular will be taxed next and illegal to ship if it is one price in one state and lower in another. The government took over many banks and car dealerships the internet will be next. TAX TAX TAX. vote no on this bill the postal service is 3 billon in debt, This will hurt postal employees and jeapordize more JOBS. tHIER ARE MORE IMPORTANT THINGS THAN A CARTON OF CIGARETTES ORDERED ONLINE. WELCOME TO SOCIALISM , ITS COMING.
Crazy legislation
May 20, 2009, 1:05pm (report abuse)This bill requires the postal service to quit shipping tobacco by mail? What about the postal carriers? They have ask for only 5 days a week to deliver mail as they are 2.5 BILLON in debt. The postal service takes in well over $10 millon a year for tobacco related shipments. How many jobs will be affected? What about alcohol? Thats right, congress enjoys a stiff drink and the indusry donates lots to the lawmakers. What about CIGARS? Thats right they are excluded. congress enjoys those as well. What about the AMERICAN PEOPLE and LIFE, LIBERTY, and the pursuit of happiness? Its all about taxes and don't let them fool you. This bill will cost thousands of jobs. I thought we were trying to fix unemployment not create more. The FDA is about to take over tobacco? They cant even track salmanella, ,peanut butter, lead toys from China. THIS BILL WILL HURT MANY AMERICANS. Taxes is what i'ts all about. NYC NEW YORK $12.00 a pack. Cong. Wiener LEAD sponsor from NY surprised?
Not Gonna Take It Anymore!
May 25, 2009, 9:17pm (report abuse)Does this mean that "carriers" such as Fed-Ex and UPS can no longer transport cigarettes?
whats the deal
May 28, 2009, 11:03am (report abuse)I am not a tobacco user but seriously leave these people alone. If they want to hinder their health then so be it. its obviously about the tax money lost and its just made to look like its for our own good. America should look closer at the alcohol. You know the stuff you drink and then you begin to malfunction almost immediately after consumption, unlike tobacco. A smoker can go years without developing health problems and I could have 5 beers and literaly kill or be killed due to stupidity. I think its time to leave the tobacco alone. The number of jobs that will be lost and the number of families that will need to turn to government assistance programs because congress put mom and dad out of work. i could ramble all day about this.
Really Now!!!
June 4, 2009, 9:57pm (report abuse)I don't understand why this county bothers to send men and women off to war to fight for our freedom, when the elected fools in office are able to continuously take them away. At what point does the government stop telling us how to live our lives and allow us to live in the home of the FREE and the brave? As it is, you tell how we can eat our food (no trans fat); what we can drink (let's tax soda); but when it comes down to something that the politicians use (alcohol) they are quite hesitant to tax that. Stop inteferring with our personal liberties.
How much more will we allow this to happen?
June 5, 2009, 10:00am (report abuse)The Pact Bill 1676 is not a very freindly bill to anyone, pro or con. It will cost many jobs in the private sector as well as in the public sector. The Indian Nations that this bill is actually aim at will suffer the lost of revenue, lost jobs and the growing disrespect for the federal government in seeling them out. If any one were to really look into this bill and see who really benefits from it will find out it will be the big cigerette manfacturere.(Phillip Morris, RJ Reynolds and others) Just securing their monoply on the sales and distribution. The Post Office will feel a great lost in the revenue. The dollar amount for postage and delivery is more close to 21 million that will be lost, but I guess it's a sacrafice that the government is willing to take since they can make it up with the price of a stamp. If this bill is passed, it will go to prove that the United States has the best law makers money can buy.
jaded in RI
June 5, 2009, 11:50am (report abuse)I would contact my Senators, however they are thoroughly corrupt and will surely vote YES on this bill.
My state has the highest per pack tax in the country at 2.83.
I hope there are enough Republicans and maverick Democrats to thwart this totalitarian bill.
Azjimbob
June 7, 2009, 9:48am (report abuse)How do we get the message OUT?
Why is CNN,MSNBC,FAUX news reading this out for the people?
We really need help on this one!
Jacquie Howard
June 9, 2009, 12:34am (report abuse)You know,Congress does NOT work for the states they represent,they work for the people who live in those states. We just had a tax hike(remember,no new taxes?)so now we can't buy them online? I'm disabled and have problems getting out. This is the easiest way for me to buy my cigarettes,the only vice I have left. I've given up drinking and gambling. I have NO tobacco related illnesses,only high blood pressure and back problems,so why do I need to quit smoking? Please,stop this insanity.
Madison
June 9, 2009, 9:11am (report abuse)WTF???!?! Are you kidding? This is yet another misguided (and wrong) attempt to get peeps to stop smoking. If this act is passed, an entire class of legal, non-hazardous goods will be nonmailable. Not allowing them to be mailed, when they are non-hazardous and legal, means a huge loss of business (potentially hundreds of millions of dollars) for the Postal Service, which is already in a crisis.
Another reason to not approve the PACT Act is cost. When the PACT Act of 2003 (S.1177) passed the Senate, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that it would cost about $140 MILLION over the 2004-2008 period to enforce. $140 Million over four years - and that estimate is already six years old. How much will the PACT Act of 2009 cost to enforce? Isn't there a better way to spend our tax dollars?
Edward Oliver
June 10, 2009, 9:03am (report abuse)You have got to be kidding. We are paying these guys to waste our tax dollars on such riduculous laws. This is only being done because the different states are crying because they are losing precious sales tax. This has NOTHING to do with under age smokers, they could care less about them. More waste of money. This is just like prohibition all over again, let's spend another 120 billion dollars on enforcing a law that goes nowhere. People can just drive to a different state and buy. what are you going to do now spend another 30 billion on pulling over all the cars and Tobacco sniffing dogs?
WTF?
June 11, 2009, 9:43am (report abuse)This legislation was promoted and funded by the NACS (National Association of Convenience Stores).
They are complaining of losing cigarette sales to internet vendors of tobacco products.
So they want to shut down those internet vendors by making it illegal to mail tobacco products.
Well, why stop there? How about Liquor Store Owners promoting their own bill to make it illegal to mail bottles of wine? How about pharmacies wanting to criminalize the mailing of prescription drugs?
How about Supermarkets shutting down Omaha Steaks?
This becomes "The Slippery Slope",
another freedom sliding away.
"I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore."
Shane Yardley
June 11, 2009, 5:19pm (report abuse)This is going to effect swedish snus I believe and I have become quite successful in quitting smoking, if they do this, I will no longer be able to purchase this FDA regulated (in Sweden) which studies have shown are safer than our American Made bullsh*t!
Non Smoker
June 11, 2009, 7:34pm (report abuse)This is ridiculous. How much more organized crime is the government going to put on the streets? Get real people
0icu812
June 12, 2009, 1:17pm (report abuse)Open wide folks were gonna get fat this year. No by quitting cigarettes and smokeless tobaco products, but rather by having to swallow all the stuff the government is pushing down our throats. Obama said this was a year for change and the people said "YES". I don't think these were the changes we were looking for though. All above comments were 100% correct weather you smoke or not. This will take away jobs. I thought the goal was to create them not destroy them? They passed the law to regulate the ingredients of cigarettes now. So whats gonna happen there? Will the FDA start demanding smokers not get nicotine in there cigarettes or even tobaco? Will you smokers be smoking lilacs or something now? All these changes on peoples personal lives are going to mount up and when "we the people" are totally fed with no having rights to anything anymore then whats gonna happen? techno chips implanted in our brains to make sure we continue to conform to being ruled like slaves?
Bob Ashman
June 14, 2009, 11:23am (report abuse)Slogan for the new age: "Smoking: it smells better than Fascism".
maxandcassiesdad
June 14, 2009, 9:59pm (report abuse)Well, we're out of uninhabited continents, well livable ones anyway. I mean, didn't this country's founding fathers leave and come here, to have a "free" country, and to get away from excessive taxation? Now seriously, we all know the only reason for this is to make it harder for smokers to get cigarettes, since they cannot much afford them in the U.S. any longer. What has happened to America? If you don't do what Uncle Sam wants you to do, they simply throw up blocks to "herd" you into the mentality they wish? "We must all think alike, and have the same opinion". If a person wants to smoke, let them smoke, that's their business. Not mine, or yours, and certainly not the governments. Smokers know full well what they're getting themselves into. An individual has the right to make their own decisions. And isn't that what's really going on here. To make cigarettes so pricey, average and lower income citizens cannot afford them? Then what, the crime rates rises, when forced undrgrnd?
Mark Utnemer
June 19, 2009, 10:59am (report abuse)With the huge unemployment and low wages created by our government I guess everyone is going to start having to learn how to use the black market if you want to get by.
Paranoid and Delusional
June 20, 2009, 9:21am (report abuse)Who's idea was it that cigarettes are as high as they are now and caused the illegal cigarette problem to begin with? Now they think they will solve it with the Pact act. I'm sure it will work just great, especially after telling everyone they can become a millionaire by selling cigarettes.
Clearly they have created a underground market for cigarettes. The people who will be most negatively impacted by this are the people who are trying to sell cigar tees the legal way.
Britt H B
June 20, 2009, 1:31pm (report abuse)This is obviously communism. Nobody is really so stupid as to believe it's for collection of taxes. This further allows communists to attempt control of all aspects of my life.
K Orton
June 20, 2009, 6:24pm (report abuse)This will only create more of black market. For a legal substance of all things. It won't prevent smuggling. It will encourage it. Anyone with an ounce of common sense could tell you that.
DRAGON
June 22, 2009, 2:14pm (report abuse)Just another excuse for more taxes,because the "Suit's" in Conress and the Senate don't have the smart's or creativity to come up with other idea's.
Tomorrow Perfume
June 23, 2009, 12:59am (report abuse)This is completely ridiculous. If the PACT Act passes, I urge everyone who opposes this bill to take to the streets and protest it. It's going to cripple the Native American tobacco industry as well as legitimate, law-abiding online swedish snus shops. Worse, this affront to our liberties will start a black market, and people will find ways to acquire tobacco seeds so they can grow their own tobacco and make their own products FREE. How much will that cost Nanny Government in lost taxes? Hmm?
john deciantis
June 30, 2009, 6:35pm (report abuse)Enough Already !!!!
Another useless law by big brother,there should be a law against them!!!!
Guy DeBryan
July 2, 2009, 8:13am (report abuse)If nothing else fails lawmakers always seem to be able to legislate non-smoking laws and increase sin tax on tobacco products. Taxing a minority to death is easier than taxing everybody. We are a republic and not a true democracy where the majority runs over everyone's rights. Please vote NO on PACT ACT 2009.
sobi
(logged in user) July 6, 2009, 5:15am (report abuse)Hard to believe that this is the "Land of the Free" isn't it?
Ron
July 9, 2009, 5:08pm (report abuse)This is wonderfull Bill. There has been a huge black market that has been created and something needs to be done to keep it in check. I mean why even make laws if there is zero enforcment.
Chris83A
July 9, 2009, 10:57pm (report abuse)After the patriot act was signed into law we lost all our freedoms as if we're the terrorist.
Buster
July 28, 2009, 9:28pm (report abuse)Lord Obama promised "change". I hope all you sheep who voted for hithis hypocryte (he smokes) are happy! There is a new revolution brewing in this country.
MyTaste
August 3, 2009, 4:41am (report abuse)Well,
Lets see what you can buy online?
You can buy liquor and have this shipped right to your door.
You can buy marijuana and have it shipped to your door.
You can buy marijuana seeds and have them shipped to your door.
Low and behold.. YOU CAN HAVE CIGARETTES DELIVERED TO YOUR DOOR ANYMORE !
HERE IS WHAT EVERYONE NEEDS TO DO IF THEY PASS THIS LAW !! GET GOOD Tobacco seeds and buy them. Plant them! Dry them and smoke. TAX FREE for personal use.
So if enough people do this what will they do next.
You can buy a cigarette rolling machine (good one) for about 75-100.00
Look at this.. They are trying to pass a law that say yes to legalize marijuana but ---- No you can buy tobacco online..
http://www.esquire.com/the-side/richardson-report/new-marijuana-laws-07... />
Everyone needs to stand up and say hell no to PACT ACT H.R 1676 and tell your reps now !!
Hope this helps
My Taste is numb
cocapelle
August 19, 2009, 2:56pm (report abuse)I am sick of all the crap that Obama has put us through, in this short time he has been in office! Too many people have lost their jobs. Now, he is trying to put the indians out of work, for their online cigarettes. Just because smokers can get a break on one thing, he wants to take that away! We are going to h-ll in a handbasket! Our country is getting cancer, and it's not from cigarettes! Stop with taking everything away from us!!! If something is going to be taxed, as if we haven't had enough, it should be something that taxes everyone, not just one group of people, smokers! Why force people to purchase cigarettes where they live, and pay twice the price, already??? What happened, did Obama have to quit smoking, because of the white house rules? What does he care, anyway. He and all his cronies will be able to afford those high prices, and will be taken care of, for the rest of their miserable lives!!! VOTE NO!!!
VOTE NO!
September 21, 2009, 2:12am (report abuse)This is ridiculous! First, you're banning the sale of clove cigarettes in America, now you're going to make it so that I can't order them online? I'm am 26 years old! I am an adult, I can make my own decisions. I only smoke a pack a week, when I work. I work in a bar, I'm a recovering alcoholic and smoking helps me to keep from drinking. I don't want to smoke regular cigarettes, just let me have my simple pleasure. I'm a very liberal democrat, but this is RIDICULOUS!
Jimbo
September 22, 2009, 2:46am (report abuse)It's like the end of days. We've had Boston Tea Party in 1773. Political protest- about taxes. 236 years later, Obama's administration wants to levy more taxes on cigarettes, booze, sugared drinks (which recently passed and will be in effect within a few months), and now H.R. 1676 to stop the smuggling of cigarettes? We paid too much taxes on them.. In this state, the cost of a pack of cigarettes before taxes would be about 48% of the total cost- so that leaves us with 52% for taxes, alone. Do the math. The point is, with economy worsening, the taxation is enough to dispel at least 25% of the deficit- so I say NO to the H.R. Bill 1767. Now, think about the deficits, and heavy taxation. Where does all that money we pay go? You tell us. You're abusing America. You're demoralizing America. You're no better than a Socialist, a Marxist, a communist, and even worse, an American Politican. Whatever happened to the "We, the People, of the United States....." We got rights, mind you!
Karl
September 24, 2009, 4:55pm (report abuse)I really cant add much to the wisdom that has been written in the previous comments. But what really gets me is that most of the most vicious anti-smoking activists (at least where I live) are obese middle aged women. I say tax the Hell out of ice cream and Ho-Hos and they will be the first to cry foul. But seriously. Smoking is my one and only vice. As a member of the working poor (when I can find steady work) this is pure elitist bull against working folks Liberals claim to love. First they made it illegal to smoke in bars. In BARS!! Then the insane tax increases that almost seemed to come every six months for the last five years or so. Then they tried to take smokes away from our men in uniform. Now this? Just make it illegal and be done with it! Then I can buy my smokes from Tony Soprano for three bucks a pack.
Alan S
October 2, 2009, 4:28pm (report abuse)A big no to this law. I use reduced harm products to stay off cigarettes, as in Swedish snus and nasal snuff. The only way to get these products is through the mail. If this bill passes I'll be back on cigarettes in a heart beat, thanks to this misguided law. This is a bad law that will put unnecessary hardship on many thousands of US citizens.
dave des monie
October 5, 2009, 11:56am (report abuse)Smokers wise up and read the writing on the wall. The goverment dose not want you to quit smoking after all they like spending your taxed money from them. they just want you to smoke in your house, inyour bedroom with the door locked and a sign on it saying WARNING SMOKER IN ROOM. Now every smoker today has a choice called E-Cigarettes the give you your nicotine without the smoke I use them and prefer them to regular cigarettes. Get educated to laern more about E-Cigarettes go to www.luck-e-strile.com then blogs and articles their you can read the facts from real reaserch pysicians and doctors
DAVE DES MONIE
October 5, 2009, 11:57am (report abuse)Smokers wise up and read the writing on the wall. The goverment dose not want you to quit smoking after all they like spending your taxed money from them. they just want you to smoke in your house, inyour bedroom with the door locked and a sign on it saying WARNING SMOKER IN ROOM. Now every smoker today has a choice called E-Cigarettes the give you your nicotine without the smoke I use them and prefer them to regular cigarettes. Get educated to laern more about E-Cigarettes go to www.luck-e-strile.com then blogs and articles their you can read the facts from real reaserch pysicians and doctors
AT - California
October 16, 2009, 12:43am (report abuse)I used snus to quit smoking and now they want to ban it? This is nothing more than a way to keep people smoking so that they can collect the taxes from it. Please don't ban snus. Snus is a much safer product than cigarettes and has a great success rate in getting people to quit smoking. I smoked a pack day for well over 20 years. I have tried patches, nicotine gum, lozenges, cold turkey and hypnotherapy without success. Snus works and I am now smoke free. Please don't take this product and the ability to order it away.
Mychyl
November 4, 2009, 11:32pm (report abuse)First off, those of you who are blaming Obama for this legislation:
PACT Act has been circulating through Congress for the last... 6 years? Obama's been in office for less than 1 year. It's not Obama who brought this down on us, so don't blame him.
Second, I agree that this legislation is utterly pointless, because (at best) it would be effectively ignored, and e-commerce and reservation commerce will continue much the same as usual. (And those of us who live in border states can cross the border, either way.) Worst case scenario, grow your own or quit. I don't like it either, but if it comes to that, not much we can do.
But please, get ahold of your senators and fight this. I would, but I'm in Arizona, so that won't work, McCain and Kyl would rather have the tax money to roll around in.
Linda Muirhead
November 5, 2009, 7:31am (report abuse)How much harder do you all feel you need to make like for others. People need to make $70,000 a year to be able to smoke? You are lucky that some of us still smoke with all these taxes you give us. Making life more difficult. Now in the state of NJ you have taxed us to friggen death. You people governing us are the biggest theives and Congress is no better with the "Lifetime Medical Plans" that you make for yourself at our cost and this is what you want to do to us? How about everyone quit smoking and drinking so there will be no one at all paying taxes and lining your prockets? All of you should go to jail for even considering this.
Non-smoker
November 5, 2009, 5:11pm (report abuse)I don't smoke and I think this is law is ridiculous. I thought we lived in a free country. It's starting to feel like a prision.
SmokerNeal
November 13, 2009, 8:01pm (report abuse)Can You Say Boston Tea "Tobacco" Party and King George "Congress"....or am I the only on that see the similarities that are going on right now to the reason for the Boston Tea Party over the excess tea taxes?????????
It is time for us to organize and have another "Boston Tobacco Party" on the steps of congress.....they forget that this country would not exist if it wasn't for tobacco...it is the only thing that provide for the founding and making of the U.S. and provided the income to do such.
They are trying to create a Probition without the Constitutional Amendment by sercomventing it with all these little laws to force Tobacco out of existence........
Katie
November 14, 2009, 1:15pm (report abuse)I am a smoker of over 20 yrs. I will prob die from lung cancer without the E-Cig.Here are some things you should consider.E-Cigs contain no tar.E-Cigs produce no carbon monoxide (they vaporize the E-liquid producing steam). E-Cigs have only 4 chemicals.Traditional cigs contain tar.Traditional cigs produce carbon monoxide. Traditional cigs contain over 100 chemicals. Carbon monoxide is known to be harmful and cause cancer.Tar clogs the air sacks of the lungs.Lung Cancer is the #1 leading cause of premature death in the USA.If passed it will make it illegal for tobacco and tobacco products to be sent though the mail. The nicotine found in the e-liquid we use in our electronic cigarettes comes from tobacco. I'm telling you if this is passed people are going to die! Genocide is the planned killing of a group of people. I can assure you this WILL kill people. If congress passes this they might as well be watching us in a giant gas chamber not really killing us just blocking the only exit!
Terri
November 16, 2009, 1:20pm (report abuse)We do not need any more legislation that would corner the market for Phillip Morris!
Chief Kisco
November 22, 2009, 3:58pm (report abuse)If this bill will pass, there will be just one more field for corruption. No other effect. OK, more dues from taxpayers. And higher prices for cigs. What else? Let me think... Can't think of anything positive.
THIS IS AMERICA
November 23, 2009, 4:24pm (report abuse)WTF! I SHOULD BE ABLE TO BUY AS MUCH CHEW I WANT TO ONLINE! THIS IS AMERICA WTF IS HAPPENING
deslock
November 27, 2009, 4:21pm (report abuse)How to stop the PACT Act of 2009
It's not too late to give them hell..
Online petition is at http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/us-citzens-against-the-pact-act-of-2009-s1...
Jason Cope
November 28, 2009, 5:28pm (report abuse)This bill will produce the exact opposite of what it's trying to accomplish. Guaranteed. Kids wll smoke whatever they can get their hands on, flavored or not. This only abuses law-abiding adults who choose to smoke something with flavor.
As for Uncle Sam getting even more of my money, I'd gladly pay taxes on my online smokes, no problem. But don't tell a law abiding adult that you he or she can't purchase what they want anymore because you said so. The whole nationwide babysitting has gone entirely too far.
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