Indeed, the parent poster appears to be weaving a "just so" story with the moral being that government (somehow a monolith and not a composition of a representa

Indeed, the parent poster appears to be weaving a "just so" story with the moral being that government (somehow a monolith and not a composition of a representative legislature) seeks to get more revenue. This ignores the fact that federal tax receipts have been hovering around 20% of GDP for the last 40 years [1]. However, each state is different; some states' legislatures intentionally tax tobacco products as a deterrent to smoking, with demonstrable public health benefits [2]. Cigarette taxes are negatively correlated with smoking rates. I concede that the federal tobacco tax rate is too low to do anything substantial, for raising revenue or as a deterrent. It should either be raised, or scrapped and left to the states. 1. http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/statistics/federal-receipt-and-outlay-summary http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/statistics/federal-receipt-an... 2. http://www.cbpp.org/research/higher-tobacco-taxes-can-improve-health-and-raise-revenue http://www.cbpp.org/research/higher-tobacco-taxes-can-improv...