pipemakersforum.com

Have you all heard of H.R. 4439? - the Tobacco Tax Parity Act of 2010 was introduced on January 13, 2010 and would raise the tax on pipe tobacco 775% from $2.8311 to $24.78 per pound.

I have recently spend $100s to stock up on pipe tobacco in expectation of this passing. It sucks.

Pipes Magazine has an online petition form that you can fill out and it automatically generates emails for your local reps too.

http://www.rallycongress.com/stop-the-p ... bacco-tax/

Fill it out, stop the madness, hope for the best... or take up arms and head for the hills.

So I should get started on that tobacco press then, eh?

Free seeds!

I posted about this a couple of weeks ago here:
viewtopic.php?f=15&t=4632

I actually got a thoughtful letter back from my house of reps rep. It was clearly not just a form letter. I was pretty pleased about that.

Still think they will pas this crap though.

I signed the Pipes Magazine petition which can be reached at the URL that kbadkar gave above and emails were automatically sent (after I had a chance to review) to my representatives which made the process very easy. I urge everyone to sign. I too received a response from my representatives by way of an automatic email reply however one of my representatives emailed me again a week later, here is the meat of his email:

"As you know, the Tobacco Tax Parity Act of 2010 (H.R.4439) was introduced in the House of Representatives by Rep. Steve Cohen. This bill seeks to make the excise tax on pipe tobacco equal to the tax on roll-your-own tobacco. This legislation has not been introduced in the U.S. Senate. However, I value your input and will keep your suggestions in mind should the Senate debate this legislation or other tax policy.""

I've also heard elsewhere on various websites that this bill has been "pulled" and is no longer under consideration, but even so, we should all sign the petition as the bill could be re-introduced again at a later date and time.

You can write the Representative for your Congressional District directly at this address :
https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml
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You can get contact information for your State's Senators at this address:
http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_i ... rs_cfm.cfm

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I sent messages to the sponsor and the co-sponsor of the H.R. 4439
The Honorable Steve Cohen, Memphis, TN 38103
The Honorable LLoyd Doggett, Austin, TX 78704

You can use the valid addresses, below, as your address, at the writerep page to send them a message, even though they are not your direct representatives.

191 Beale Street
(not my address, but "required info")
Memphis, TN 38103

512 Barton Springs Rd
(not my address, but "required info")
Austin, TX 78704

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I think it's worth doing, even though, I don't think it will affect the outcome. The public's responce to the trillion dollar bail-out bill was 100 to 1 against it, but the bill was passed anyway. The polititians also ignored protests about the big tobacco tax hike H.R.2, the SCHIP bill, in 2009 and passed it anyway.
So you could make and sell some pipes, and use the money to pay the tax.
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Make and sell some pipes, and use the money to pay the tax, about $80 a month if you smoke a lot.

I accidently clicked the "Submit" button twice, and the message above got posted twice, so I edited and cleared this one.

Mike Messer wrote: They don't really give a damn what the people of this country want.

I don't know that I necessarily agree with that. There's a much larger population of non-pipesmokers in this country that would probably much rather see us get taxed to fill the coffers than themselves. As long as a lot of shady information paints smokers as the worst people in the country we'll just keep getting bent over the barrel with a surplus of public support.

This really worries me a lot
I can see that is just a matter of time to have these ideas rolling here around Europe.
Besides, good part of EU blended tobaccos uses in fact US made tobacco.

There was a recent case in France concerning the censure of Jacques Tati's pipe (headline on France24) in...
you guys will not believe that...
in a cinema fair that was made on his honor!
This is an example of lawmakers messing around! One day censure, next day; prohibition!

I don't know... But I hard believe that some lawmakers are trying to figure out
a decreasing way for tobacco related diseases. I really believe that increasing taxes
is shortcut to get more money to oil any government machine


I found this website that is trying to build some pressure against H.R. 4439:
http://nomoretobaccotaxes.com/

eder.

• • •
Eder Mathias
http://mrhydepipes.com

BeatusLiebowitz wrote:

Mike Messer wrote: They don't really give a damn what the people of this country want.

I don't know that I necessarily agree with that. There's a much larger population of non-pipesmokers in this country that would probably much rather see us get taxed to fill the coffers than themselves. As long as a lot of shady information paints smokers as the worst people in the country we'll just keep getting bent over the barrel with a surplus of public support.

Yea, I think you're right. I was irritated, and I overstated that a bit, so I just now went back and edited it. But please understand, true democracy, is the will of the majority, with respect for the minority, and polititians are educated, professionals, who should legislate based on facts, with consideration, and not based on what they can sell to the public with shady, biased manipulation.

I like Bear Graves response that he sent to his representatives and posted on Puff.com..
Bear said:
"Many times in our country's history, even the most reasonable of men and women have become swept up in a societal and legislative tsunami. Be it the hysteria of the McCarthy era, or the well intended naivety of the Volstead Act, the firebrands genuinely believed that their aim was to improve the lot of a group of individuals, or the country, whether those affected could see the benefit or not. And, for at least a short while, moderates were placed in the horrid position where they believed a "Nay" vote would spell doom for their political careers. After all, what kind of REAL American could possibly be against the evils of liquor, or in favor of Communists eventually taking over the government?

Eventually enough courageous legislators banded together, said "It stops here", and voted based upon reason and the reality of the situation, not the pressures of fashion.

To place any additional increase in taxation on this most benign form of tobacco usage, much less than the bewildering 775% increase proposed in H.R. 4439, an increase that would effectively toll the death-knell for both a cottage industry, as well as this time honored, and respected means of seeking solace and quiet enjoyment.

Respectfully, I submit that it is well past time to say "Enough!", and ask that you oppose H.R 4439.

Dr. Ronald "Bear" Graves

This is currently awaiting consideration by the House Ways and Means committee; maybe the fact that the head of it is under investigation for ethics violations will at least slow the process down a bit....