Congress to end Military tobacco subsidies
David sends us a link to an NBC News article which reports that the new Defense spending bill plucks out the 25% discount that military members can take advantage of in the commissary;
Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., chairman of the subcommittee, said studies show that tobacco use is higher in the military. He said that translates into more illnesses and health care costs of $1.6 billion a year.
“There is no reason these deadly products are subsidized,” Durbin said.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said she was surprised that the subsidy was so high.
[…]
The House version of the defense policy bill would thwart any Navy efforts to restrict access to tobacco. In May, Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., described smoking as one of the few pleasures for a member of the military, and he easily convinced his colleagues on the House Armed Services Committee to back his measure.
It’s like twenty little vacations in a box. But, hey, Congress knows what’s best for us, so go ahead, Durbin. You know what else is bad for the troops’ health? Giving weapons to our future enemies, but I don’t see you stopping that practice anytime soon. Deadly products, FFS. But if someone offered to supply the troops with free pot, Durbin would break his own neck to vote for it.
Category: Congress sucks
Remember, this is the same guy who called the troops Nazis.
And what about “at-sea” smokes? Oh, who am I kidding. Boats are smoke-free now anyway.
I really wish folks would lay off this smoking thing – but know that they never will. I smoked (and still do) and in over 24 years of being in the Army missed exactly one day due to a medical related issue (stomach ulcer). Carried a profile for a while due to a broken back recieved in a helicopter crash. Hit sick-call probably a dozen times in my whole career, and some of those were follow-ups due the above maladies. I do remember one time going on sick-call with a sore chest. This was a couple of days after a particular hard touch-football game for PT where I had got tagged pretty hard in the upper left chest. Had the bruise and everything. Well as soon as the doc found out that I smoked that’s what he blamed my pain on. It didn’t matter that I had this really neat bruise on my chest. Hopefully he went back to changing bedpans.
Yeah, I reckon smoking isn’t good for you, but quit blaming ALL of the nation’s health woes on it. Alcohol is a known carcinogen, same as tobacco smoke. How about all of that great healthy food served in the Burger Kings and McDonalds at all of the posts??
I’ll believe that the powers that be are truly looking after my well-being when all of the fattening foods, soft-drinks and alcohol are removed from the commissaries, PXs and mess halls.
Ain’t gonna happen.
Out.
Guess the Class VI stores are next.
Bastards.
Smoking is a nasty, disgusting habit, that if the government wanted gone they could simply regulate out the nicotine from it. They won’t though, because it then eliminates the number of people who become addicted to the nicotine and continue to smoke. By their continuing to smoke, they also continue to fill federal, state, and local tax coffers with money.
It is not about your health, it is about your money becoming their money. By eliminating the federal subsidies for it, they gain even more of it back.
I would be curious to know the real numbers, and the real studies that show the military is coughing up (pun intended) 1.6 billion per year due to smoking related illness… Illnesses that are also just as likely caused by other factors.
For the record, I smoked the entire time I was on Active Duty and beyond. I quite 5 or 6 years ago, and have suffered no short term or long term illnesses/diseases from it. I know some folks will get sick and die as a result of diseases related to smoking, but hell we all die of something.
Durbin can go pound sand, because we all know they are simply looking to gut any benefit the military gets, so that they have more money to spend on their social(ist) agenda.
Concur.
I am not in favor of making tobacco illegal. However, i DO favor removing subsidies to farmers for growing the stuff.
Let the farmers charge a fair price. Yeah, tobacco prices will go through the roof, but that’s what the free markets are supposed to be in place for. Supply & demand.
Of course, I’m in favor of eliminating ALL farm subsidies too, so there’s that.
The only thing driving tobacco prices through the roof are the taxes on it.
In VA a carton costs $4 at the local WaWa. At Cumby’s in NH, $6. At a NYC bodega, $14. So yeah, this is a drop in the bucket.
And I say this as a former smoker who quit after leaving my last boat and cigarettes became too expensive…at $15/carton.
Whoops…my example was per pack, not carton. But the idea still applies.
This is the same Congress that outlawed the mailing of tobacco products greater than 1 oz. a few years ago. The reason they outlawed it was for monetary/tax receipt reasons. The idiots claimed they did not want tobacco mailed to anyone 18 or younger, but did they include an APO exemption? Hell no. The Copenhagen I had to suffer though in Iraq and Afghanistan was old, dry, stale, and would not have been fit to plow back into the ground. For the most part, the PX was always out, but the Haji stores had plenty (go figure). Ordering it online was nice, until it became illegal. It’s always about the money with these a$$holes.
Yea, the Cope was horrible over there. Pinch ‘o Dust. The ‘Deployment Cope’ in plastic tins just wasn’t the same either. I switched to Grizzly long cut straight over there. It was cheaper, and I got my pops to send me a log every now and again.
All that stuff about 2nd hand smoke? BS. My mother and father both smoked. My dad smoked even when his doctor told him to quit if he wanted to live past 60. (Died at 85.)
I do not have any of those things that are supposed to be linked to 2nd hand smoke. However, I do appreciate it a lot that restaurants are smoke-free.
But Illinois is now officially a medical marijuana state, and guess who voted for it. Do you think maybe medicaid or Medicare will cover that crap? I’m just waiting for Walgreen’s to put it in their weekend sale paper.
I’ve been in a lot of commissaries in the last year along the East coast and haven’t seen a one that sold cigs. It used to be common. If he’s talking about the PX, I could beat their prices on the economy (I don’t smoke but late wife did).
Well I knew someday it would end. The old, “smoke ’em if you got ’em”, will be gone I guess.
Last time I checked, tobacco was still legal and military personnel are all grown men and women. Therefore, they can smoke, dip, or whatever if they damn well please.
How many of these same dickheads support legalized marijuana? I ask because most of the people (especially politicians) who are so rabidly anti-tobacco also tend to be rabidly pro-cannabis. I’m tempted to call it ironic, but since they usually tend to the type of libs who want to dictate every facet of your life…feckin’ hypocrites.
Like everything else the lefties do, this has nothing to do with anyone’s health – it’s about control. They successfully demonized smoking, then went to the global warming meme, and now have moved on to racism. Create a problem, propagandize it, use the misinformation to control people. It’s what they do again and again.
What 25% discount? In 1997, congress passed a law mandating that on base cigarette prices would be the same as off base prices. I was in Korea then and prices doubled overnight. It became cheaper to buy them downtown. Today, one saves a couple dollars a carton on CONUS bases but there is no great discount as in years past.
Unless I missed something, all this says is that they want to stop selling tobacco at a discount.
What the hell is wrong with that?
I’m all for service connected benefits, but bitching about this one is kind of pointless. And I use tobacco products.
Maybe this will give you the incentive to quit. Not to mention the ~$1500 you spend in a year. ($4/pack, 1pack per day)
Dan, you might be right but I view it as just a precursor. Target Cigs…no sweat. I don’t smoke. Then target Booze…whoa…but ok, it’s bad for me. Then target Commissary…well I eat too much and there’s Wally World. Then target Tri-Care…don’t need it because you can get Obumba care….etc etc. Libs don’t quit.
Our “esteemed Members of Congress” backing this are, to be charitable, dissembling.
Best I can tell, there is no “subsidy” for tobacco at military stores. At exchanges, they’re sold for a price slightly lower than retail in the local area – which is in general the way exchanges do business (they markup goods and services much the same as do commercial vendors; the only difference is that their “profits” go to service MWR funds).
At commissaries, tobacco products are sold at or near cost, as are all the other products sold at commissaries. Thus, there is no “subsidy”, and not even a true “discount”. You’re merely paying roughly cost plus surcharge. It’s what commissaries do – sell stuff at roughly cost plus surcharge.
I’m a nonsmoker, and I think smoking is a stupid thing to do. But in my book freedom includes the freedom to be stupid, provided you’re willing to face the possible consequences and don’t break the law.
And I really don’t like folks lying through their teeth to push an agenda. IMO that’s precisely what’s being done here.
Yep. Exactly the point, Hondo.
Besides all that, show me one American who does not engage in some sort of self-destructive behavior, many of which are much more likely to harm us than does the fellow down the street using tobacco products. Everyone either does too much or too little of something which can adversely impact their health and safety.
Because we Americans are risk takers, we tend to over do or under do things like exercise, highway speed, intake of carbonated beverages, sun worship, sleep, and a very long list of other things.
“smoke um if you got um”. I remember that phrase from long ago. Back before I became known for my magic typing fingers, I was a gunners mate guns (GMG) wannabe. If you were one of the 6 guys down in a magazine and a smoke break was dictated, guess who had to stay behind for magazine security. The non-smoker, that’s who. So I started smoking Lucky Strikes. This was age 19 and I quit at age 24. And the smokes were 11 cents (sea stores) per pack, carton $1.10. Cheap but of course my pay was about approx nothing per month. BZ
The marine Corps was way ahead of this in 1973.
First day in Recruit training our Senior
Drill Instructor asked how many smokers in this platoon.
Whole buncha hands went up.
He said,”You ain’t no more.”
He didn’t need an Act of Congress.
Fuck’em. I figure, we’re all gonna day one day anyway, so I’m gonna enjoy the hell out of life while I’m still here to do so.
If that includes my 3 cigars a day, GREAT! I’ll keel over with a big fucking grin on my face.
“Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming “Wow! What a Ride!”
Fuck you, Durbin…..Dick.
Grizzly snuff aka fine cut original and Copenhagen snuff only thing I dip. Come on these two dips are the most sought after things after wet wipes and toilet paper. Dicky Durban tried to ban tobacco in MLB… how does congress have power over pro ball???? Hint: they don’t. Liberals always trying to enforce the will of socialism upon us.