With all of the talk of spending in Washington, D.C., right now, they’re now going to turn the conversation to how they’ll pay for it all. I’m glad that President Joe Biden, Sen. Maggie Hassan and others in our federal delegation say they will not pick the pockets of those making less than $400,000 per year. Unfortunately, not everyone in DC agrees and Senator Hassan can show leadership for the working class

Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin wants to increase taxes on all tobacco and tobacco-alternative products that help reduce harm for those who are addicted to tobacco products. This would hit people like me in the pocket – hard. It’s no secret or surprise that it’s the workers of our country that use the most tobacco products. If you increase the taxes on these, you’re hurting those who are focused on building our country – from construction workers to service workers.

I work in the restaurant business, if you go up and down Main Street in Nashua you’ll see plenty of workers like me who enjoy a smoke break in between our shifts. We have already been whacked by COVID-related shut downs this past year, now politicians who have never worked a real job in their life want to increase our taxes.

Also, worse than that is those who aren’t working will be hit hard by this tax increase. Because more of our income will go to tobacco taxes, we will have less for groceries, and other necessities. Why not have billionaires like Jeff Bezos, who can afford to fly to space on his own dime, pay for some of all this spending? Most of it helps Amazon and other big corporations.  

This will hurt our small business owners too. Convenience stores will lose business because their customers will not be able to afford to purchase all of the other products they do when they go into to buy cigarettes, vape sticks or other smokeless good. Cigar shops, all across the state will get hit hard too – the tax on cigars can go up nearly 1000%. That means fewer trips downtown by consumers – which means fewer customers coming into restaurants like where I work.

There are plenty of ways to pay for all the new spending in D.C. It’s time for the rich to pay their fair share. But this would crush the working class. Senator Hassan has said she would defend the workers like me – I hope she does it again by opposing this working-class tax hike.