No Bailout Required - Just Leave Us Alone

Source from:  Tobacco Reporter 04/01/2009

On the eve of a huge increase in US federal excise taxes on tobacco products, the president of the J.C. Newman Cigar factory in Tampa, Florida, Eric Newman, is concerned that his business will be driven down by prices that will have to rise by a third, according to a report by Debbie Elliott for NPR. "In the days they are offering $25 billion bailouts, we don't want a 25-cent bailout," Elliott quoted Newman as saying. "We just want the government to leave us alone to run our business the same way we've been doing it for 114 years." While cigarette taxes will go from $0.39 to $1.01 per pack tomorrow, taxes on cigars will go from $0.05 to $0.40 per cigar. Enditem