Fed PACT Act Needs KILLED

If you don't smoke or detest smoking, you may be inclined to by-pass this but you shouldn't because it affects us all.  The PACT Act is the Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking Act.  Trafficking?  Seriously?  It sure makes it look like a good thing to stop but that's not what it is about at all.  This is our Federal Congress wanting to stop the ability to mail tobacco products, to stop internet sales of them is an ancillary objective.

"Directs the ATF Director to create regional contraband tobacco trafficking teams and a Tobacco Intelligence Center to monitor and coordinate tobacco diversion investigations."  This SO typifies what is wrong with our government.  In this lousy economy with Congress already spending Trillions of dollars, sure, what we need is yet more expensive bureaucracy to spend more money.  Come on guys, WE have budgets and have to live within them.  That's becoming more difficult by the day because YOU keep spending money that doesn't fit in OUR budgets.

"Prohibits a tobacco product manufacturer or importer from selling or delivering in states cigarettes not in compliance with model or qualifying state statutes."  Id.  For those of you who are unaware, the feds recently mandated additional chemicals be added to all cigarettes.  Many had switched to natural and organic cigarettes in recent years.  whether you approve of smoking or not, you should catch the irony of them mandated added chemicals and then outlawing the possibility of getting organic alternatives.  (They've had this whole campaign about regulating the safety of cigarettes and making everyone comply but what hasn't gotten press coverage is that they mandated we all get subjected to additional burning chemicals in the name of "safety".)

"Amends the federal criminal code to: (1) treat cigarettes and smokeless tobacco as nonmailable and prohibit such items from being deposited in or carried through the U.S. mails (with specified exceptions, including for mailings for consumer testing); and (2) authorize officers of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) to enter the premises of certain cigarette shippers to inspect records and inventories."  Id.  Oh, yeah, sure, let's make cigarettes nonmailable!  USPS has plenty of other business to pick up for the losses in revenue from that!  NOT!  USPS is circling the drain already.  That second part should scare the CRUD out of everyone.  One more excuse for warrantless searches. "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated" (do I need to put the citation for that in here?  I hope not!) sure doesn't mean much when they have a laundry list of reasons to just blow right into your business or home and take the place apart on mere suspicion and accusation. 

"Amends the Jenkins Act to: (1) include smokeless tobacco as a regulated substance; (2) impose shipping and recordkeeping requirements on delivery sellers (sellers using the telephone, mails, or the Internet) of cigarettes and smokeless tobacco; (3) require common carriers of cigarette products to obtain age and identity verification upon delivery of such products; (4) require the Attorney General to compile and publish a list of delivery sellers of cigarettes or smokeless tobacco who have not complied with the registration or other requirements of such Act; (5) increase criminal penalties and impose new civil penalties for violations of this Act; and (6) grant jurisdiction to U.S. district courts to prevent and restrain violations of this Act and direct the Attorney General to administer and enforce this Act."  Id.  Oh, my, where to start.  1 and 2 are all about increasing production and sales costs so it is passed along to consumers.  3 and we're back to USPS if they are mailable and to other carriers if they aren't.  Bet your boots that is going to increase the costs of all products that get shipped!  5 and 6 give us more bureaucracy to pay for!!!

Nonmailable?  Well, yes but there are exceptions.  Cigars can be mailed!  Really?  Tobacco is such a massive health threat and blah, blah but cigars get an exception?  Oh, and if you're in Alaska or Hawaii, you get an exception too.  And there are some other exceptions.  Can you say "SPECIAL INTERESTS"?  Either it's a big bad and should be nonmailable or not.  WTF???

"Limits the applicability of this Act with respect to Indian tribes and certain tribal matters."  Uh, no, actually it does just the opposite by extending federal authority and jurisdiction further into Indian affairs.  Indian tribes are independent nations.  The US government should BUTT OUT of their business.

But let's get to what this is REALLY all about...  Follow the money.

"Congress finds that-- (1) the sale of illegal cigarettes and smokeless tobacco products significantly reduces Federal, State, and local government revenues, with Internet sales alone accounting for billions of dollars of lost Federal, State, and local tobacco tax revenue each year;...(7) with rising State and local tobacco tax rates, the incentives for the illegal sale of cigarettes and smokeless tobacco have increased;"

There's a simple answer to that.  STOP expecting smokers to fund anything and everything through tobacco taxes!  If tobacco is SO bad, outlaw it; otherwise, it should be taxed just like every other normal everyday product and voila the incentive for people to find ways around the stupid taxes simply goes away.

Saying this is about "trafficking" or that "terrorists" are making profits from illegal sales is just plain absurd and fear mongering.  STOP IT.  By bizarre taxing, you created that opportunity so own what you created, change the taxing and it will all be fixed from that angle.

But "the children, the children..."  I'm so tired of hearing this one.  Children can and do get their paws on all kinds of things they shouldn't.  TELL THEIR PARENTS to raise their children.  My grown self should not have to conduct every moment of every day and spend my time and money excessively to protect every child out there.  Grown people should be able to have adult lives with adult products.  Reasonable restrictions?  Yes.  Excessive and using this as an excuse for every restriction?  HELL NO.

"(6) unfair competition from illegal sales of cigarettes and smokeless tobacco is taking billions of dollars of sales away from law-abiding retailers throughout the United States"  Uh, what was I saying about fixing the taxing issues?  Ya know, people would really rather go to the corner store to buy smokes but, duh, you had to know that they'd find alternatives if you just kept jacking up the taxes year after year!  "(9) the number of Internet vendors in the United States and in foreign countries that sell cigarettes and smokeless tobacco to buyers in the United States increased from only about 40 in 2000 to more than 500 in 2005".  Yep, just look at the tax increases for each of those years!!!

"(8) the number of active tobacco investigations being conducted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives rose to 452 in 2005"  And what did that cost us?  With new laws come new enforcement costs too.  This will be a VERY expensive law and EVERYONE will get to pay for it.

If you value our rights, you should be objecting to laws like this and this is but one example of infringing the rights of citizens, especially adults.  They get more brazen with every passing year in infringing our rights and I don't need the government acting in parens patriae for me!  I doubt you do either but they will come after your "goodies" soon enough if they are permitted to keep whittling away at our rights.

I see them going after small livestock operations as I've pointed out on this blog.  Last year, the great state of Texas snatched up 400+ children (all but one of whom had to be returned in rather short order).  And there are so, so many other examples - just look at the daily news.  We all need to be sending the government the message that we want information but we are adults and have certain rights.  BUTT OUT especially when your acting in parens patriae results in some of the worst parenting on the planet!

On "going postal".  I'm not terribly fond of that term but I think everyone will recognize it.  The phenomenon sure seems to be getting more widespread from what I see.  Not only that but we're becoming an even less polite society, less tolerant and that eggs on "going postal".  Frankly, I'm a little surprised at how few people "go postal" given what I see and I wonder how much longer before that changes if we don't get back to minding our own business and allowing for a broader acceptable level of "normal" instead of egging the government toward dictating everything in our daily lives.

Start giving your Senators a piece of your mind.  You can find links to there here.

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