The Big Mac Tax

We all heard it, your taxes will not go up one dime if you make under $250,000, wait a second, it was $200,000, oops sorry, it was $150,000. The amount varied depending on which speech you listened to during then Senator Obama's presidential campaign, but the theme was clear that he promised not to raise any taxes on the middle class. In July of 2008, Obama gave a speech of particular importance in which he said this, "And 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." Two phrases in this promise stand out in my mind, "firm pledge" and "not any of your taxes." Well Mr. President, which part of "any" did you not understand? It only took you about two weeks in office to break this "firm pledge".

On April 1, 2009, a new cigarette tax went into effect which raised the U.S. Federal Tax on a pack of cigarettes from $0.39 to $1.01 per pack. I'm a smoker so I've got to ask myself two questions - "do I make under $250,000" and "did my taxes go up"? Okay Mr. President, so much for your "firm pledge". I've heard all the arguments, "it's a voluntary tax." Can anyone explain to me what a "voluntary tax" is? I didn't volunteer to pay more taxes. Another well worded and convincing argument was, "you should quit smoking anyway." Now for my all time favorite, "it's not a real tax, it's a sin tax."

I thought sin was supposed to be between me and God, but evidently others feel differently. I was raised in the Baptist church and the number one and number two sins most hammered on were smoking and drinking. Well, the Bible I've read says, "Do not mix with winebibbers or with gluttonous eaters of meat." This is what I affectionately call the "Baptist syndrome" - pick on the sins you don't do, but don't say anything about the ones you do. What I propose is this, why not have a "gluttonous eaters of meat" tax? We could call it the "Big Mac" tax.

If we use a tax rate similar to cigarettes, that $3.50 Big Mac would now cost you about $8.00, and if 550 million Big Macs are sold in the US each year, the government could rake in about 2.5 billion in tax revenue each year just on Big Macs alone. But why stop there, why not include the Whopper, the Old Fashioned Triple, the Jumbo Jack, and the rest? Oh, and we haven't even started on the other sins we could tax. If we taxed gossip in Washington DC alone, we could solve the national debt crisis in a matter of months. How about this one, Mr. President, why don't we tax lying, or shall we be politically correct and say, "breaking firm pledges"?

The bottom line is this, I make under $250,000 a year and my taxes went up. So, where does it end? There are many other "promises" out there to be broken and many other things left to tax. And with all the out-of-control spending by our government, there will be no choice except to raise everyone's taxes or send America into bankruptcy. I would say stop spending and printing money and you won't have to raise our taxes. To the non-smokers and Baptists out there I say this; pretty soon, they will find your sin too.

By: Michael Kinzie

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Full Article: www.teaparty911.com/articles/cigarette_tax.htm More from Michael at TeaParty911.com: www.teaparty911.com/tea_party_articles.htm Michael writes for the Lake Fork Tea Party Patriots and for TeaParty911.com. He has written numerous articles concerning the Tea Party movement and its influence in today’s political landscape. Topics include government intrusions on liberty, corruption in politics, pending legislation in Congress, and much more.