Life on the Road – Trucking News Blog

I’ve gotten a few emails lately castigating our Michigan Governor (aka the Granmole) for the huge rise in cigarette taxes coming April 1st. I keep pointing out to these people that, although Granholm is talking about raising cigarette taxes, she hasn’t yet accomplished it. Of course, having taxes go up $.62 a pack is bad, but not more than many would expect and even accept. Michigan already taxes cigarettes at $2.00 a pack. But, per-pack taxes aren’t the major issue infuriating these people: it’s the tax on bulk tobacco-the roll-yer-own kind. That tax went from $1.18 a pound to $24.95/lb-a 2259% increase!

Now, this is a big thing in Michigan. The poor economy has lasted so long that a great many people roll their own. Affluent living is having one of those $50 crank cigarette machines on the coffee table. Michigan’s taxes on cigarettes have gotten so bad that Canadian Customs finally stopped even asking you to declare US cigarettes at the border over at Windsor; why would you bother to smuggle cigarettes at very close to the Canadian price? Since cigs are already nearly $50 a carton here, the extra $6.40 a carton will cause grumbling but very little behavior change.

For some strange reason, the tobacco companies instituted this big tax increase a couple of weeks early. So, all of a sudden, when people went to their local grocery stores to pick up a pound of Bugler or Gambler, the $18.50 price was now nearly $44-before state sales tax! Retailers had no choice-they had to pass on the extra cost-and some figure it will put them out of business. People were absolutely outraged-does it serve them right for not paying attention? I guess not-because they all think Granholm did it (no-she intends to get another $20 or so per pound but hasn’t yet). See-they’re all used to Granholm taxing them into oblivion but they just cant wrap their heads around the fact that the guy with the big ears who told them he was going to tax the rich and not them flat-out lied to them! That’ll teach them to vote for promises, not substance. Since the new tobacco taxes disproportionately impact the lower income, I don’t know how they’re going to reconcile the knowledge that they are disproportionately paying for the new, “FREE” universal health care they want handed to them post haste!

If there was ever a better way to teach a group of people that socialism and its attendant social engineering comes at a very high cost-both monetarily and morally, I cant imagine what it would be. Meanwhile, Granholm may have to go back to Canada and hide out until her term is up. . people are not happy! But, the group who got screwed here the worst isn’t the smokers-it’s the tobacco farmers!

History of Tobacco Farming

You know of course who put the tobacco farmers into business don’t you? It was a government program! Many of them used to grow hemp when hemp was the fiber of choice for rope-and everybody needed good ropes. Unfortunately, DuPont decided that “better living through chemistry” and the nylon rope should be able to corner the market, particularly with the military contracts for rope. Problem was, it was expensive and the Navy didn’t particularly like nylon rope (ever try to tie a decent knot with a nylon rope?).

So, DuPont engaged in a lot of lobbying-to outlaw marijuana, a form of hemp! They spent a lot of money producing such classics as “Reefer Madness” and inciting anti-marijuana sentiment to get the noxious and morality-destroying weed outlawed-to the point that their chief competition as a rope material-hemp-was outlawed. Hemp never was a smoke-able drug anyway-no THC content to speak of. But, outlawing it was important so they could corner the market for their vastly inferior nylon rope product. And, since the government essentially put the hemp farmers out of work by outlawing their main crop, they subsidized them to grow tobacco instead.

Since then, the tobacco farmers have been being steadily abused by the anti-smoking lobby. The tobacco industry has been sued in every state multiple times for producing a legal product and has paid multi-billions in fines and settlements to the states-which promptly spent the money and sued them again! The tobacco business is finally just about taxed and fined out of business-this round is likely the death knell of the trade. And farmers in Kentucky have got to be wondering, where do we go from here? Let me guess-ethanol?

Maybe it was ethanol!

On an even sadder note, an icon of Maggie Valley, NC and Cocke County, TN died a couple of weeks ago-a victim of the Federal Government’s need for control-and taxes. Marvin “Popcorn” Sutton took his own life rather than begin yet another prison term for moonshining-his third or fifth, depending on who tells the story. Popcorn-who got his nickname from a rather exuberant altercation with a balky tavern popcorn machine in his youth-was one of the last and most famous of Appalachia’s dying breed of home distillers of corn liquor.

Popcorn was certainly a colorful old guy-and looked a million years older than his 61 yrs. He became famous for building stills for others-often to decorate the lobby of a mountain Bed & Breakfast or somebody’s family room. He wrote a book, called “Me and My Likker” and starred in a video about the proper way to build a still. Home distilling was a traditional art in the mountains, brought by Scots-Irish immigrants and legal until the Civil War. Dan Pierce, chairman of the history department at the University of North Carolina at Asheville says “This is something that legitimately is an expression of the culture of this region.” It was also a cash crop, allowing the desperately poor of the mountains some needed cash for necessities in hard times.

Other moonshiners gave in to government insistence that they not produce this untaxed product anymore and found other ways to make a living. Some went back to growing hemp-only not the rope-makin’ kind. And, I swear I got towed off I-40 years ago by Popcorn’s second-cousin twice removed on his third-wife’s side! NASCAR has its roots in the trade. Although Popcorn often worked at the Maggie Valley Opry House, pickin’ his banjo and entertaining guests, in his heart, he remained a moonshiner. Once, although he was supposed to be demonstrating the art of distillery without producing a product, he ended the demonstration by providing those present with a sample of his wares-and got busted once again.

Last year, one of his sheds caught fire and when the fire department came to put out the fire the sheriff showed up too-and found some suspicious hardware. A resultant raid by the “revenooers’ found 850 gal of his best product and placed him before the judge one last time. Although in failing health and despite huge support from the public, the judge sentenced him to eighteen months. His wife found him dead of carbon monoxide poisoning out back in his “3-jug Fairlane” the one painted John Deere Green with yellow wheels (the 3 jugs is what he traded for the car). Federal agents said they couldn’t remember when they had last prosecuted a moonshining case before this one-and that they spend most of their time chasing meth labs in the area.

A documentary of Popcorn’s stories and craft is available from Sucker Punch Pictures http://www.suckerpunchpictures.com/last_one_popcorn_sutton.html for $22. Don’t forget to pay the tax.

“A government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take everything you have.”
Barry Goldwater