Do Not Be Fooled on Cigarette Tax, HB 1204

Secure Arkansas, a non-partisan Grassroots Organization: Act immediately - the Cigarette Tax, HB 1204 Passed Through House Committee DO NOT BE FOOLED - Governor Beebe speaks about this cigarette tax funding a Trauma Center, but this money will go directly in to the General Fund and is not designed for a Trauma Center. The governor has also spoken about funding 20 other "Health Related" programs . . . . and we already know that ILLEGALS have access to all health benefits.

Direct excerpt from the bill:

(d) The revenue derived from the additional tax imposed by this section shall be credited to the General Revenue Fund Account of the State Apportionment Fund, there to be distributed with the other gross general revenue collections for that month in accordance with the Revenue Stabilization Law, § 19-5-201 et seq. http://www.arkleg.state.ar.us/assembly/2009/R/Bills/HB1204.pdf

The Trauma Center is just an extension of Emergency Rooms which Illegal aliens now use for all their health care problems.

The 300 Million dollar surplus means we have been taxed too much. We are aware that Governor Beebe is trying to buy all legislators' votes with the promise of pork money for their districts - which is unethical. In addition to Beebe's tax proposal, there is another 61-cent tax on a pack of cigarettes from the federal government. A 100 million dollar tax will affect the money of everyday Arkansans, not to mention expand government. It does not matter if you approve of smoking or not, this is another assault on your personal liberty, will you be next?

ACTION NEEDED: Call your Arkansas State Representative and Senators, regardless of political party, and request them to oppose this sham bill which will obligate every taxpayer in the future to pay for unknown medical programs and maybe a couple trauma centers.

Bill Smith, ARRA Editor: On a darker note, I wish to thank Arkansas Rep. Dan Greenberg for identifying the reflective thoughts of one "very strange" individual who is influencing Arkansas Gov. Mike Beebe and trying to influence legislators on the cigarette tax. In the "Arkansas Republican Newsletter," Rep. Greenberg provided excerpts of Dr. Dan Hawkins, the governor's newest appointee to the Arkansas Tobacco Prevention & Cessation Advisory Committee, letter to legislators in which in summary states that Smokers are Evil and Insane And Legislators Who Disagree are Stupid, Corrupt and Just Like Nazis. Excerpts follow:

"Seventy percent of cigarettes are smoked by mentally ill people. This is documented in the 2004 Archives of General Psychiatry. I hope to share more on this twist upon another occasion. But, for now, just let me say that 30% of smokers have an Axis II Personality Disorder, i.e., they not only have one or more serious psychiatric illness(es), but, may also be bad people.

Regardless of party affiliation, Arkansas legislators have historically caved in to constituents who own convenience stores that sell tobacco in counties with a border contiguous with other states, who protest that they may lose cigarette sales because of a proposed higher cigarette sales tax in Arkansas that might lead some of their customers to cross state lines to purchase their cigarettes in lower-taxed states.

Thus, these legislators would, perhaps unwittingly, 'let the inmates run the asylum.' Those who might resent some of my remarks, made here today, should perhaps instead fear that they resemble some of these remarks. I have been led to believe that it is usually that which people actually subconsciously may feel to be true about themselves which makes them angry, mad, upset, or afraid."

Hawkins amended his letter with another e-mail: "let me say that nearly half of all cigarettes are smoked by some 30% of smokers who also have one or more serious psychiatric illnesses, which can also include one or more serious Axis II Personality Disorders. Individuals with Axis II Personality Disorders not only have one or more serious psychiatric illness(es), but, some may not infrequently also, exhibit criminal behaviours." Dr. Hawkins, thanks for clarifying!

However, the most incisively awesome part of Hawkins' missive to us was his comparison of people who disagree with him to Nazis:

"Ironically, we lose more Americans, dead from smoking, each & every single year, as were killed by the Nazis throughout the entirety of World War II. The whole point of the post-War Nuremberg Trials of the Nazis was to disabuse our leaders of the notion that they can write, facilitate, implement, or ignore, substantially pro-death laws, and then immunize themselves as lawmakers against any legal accountability with a self-protective law, fiat, or decree, all entirely contrary to the public interest."

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