Dems Back Regressive Tax

Surprising absolutely no one, a group of Democratic soon-to-be State Senators called for a cigarette-tax hike today:

Though proposed tobacco tax increases have stalled in the General Assembly in recent years, a coalition of nine newly-elected state senators is leading the push for a $1-a-pack hike -- a move they hope will win the support of the incoming Democratic administration.

"Where there's a will there's a way, and I'm here to tell you there are nine new senators, at least, who have that will," Sen.-elect Michael Lenett, a Montgomery County Democrat, said yesterday during the Baltimore kick-off of the Healthy Maryland Initiative.

Isn't this the same type of regressive taxation that hurts middle-class workers that Democrats always accuse Republicans of supporting? Of course it is.

Besides, if these Democrats were so damn concerned about eliminating the health risks from smoking, and if they were so damn concerned with protecting people from cigarette smoke, than they would ban cigarettes instead of using this as a source of extra revenue from the poor and the middle classes.

I can only imagine what other taxes these Democratic senators-elect will unleash upon the middle class the next four years...