Proposed 20,000% Tax Increase

Yes that figure is correct. Congress wants to increase the current cigar tax up to 20,000%. You might be asking yourself, what kind of horrible product would deserve such an outrageous tax increase? The answer is the oft maligned demon weed in it's best form, the cigar.

Via the St Petersburg Times:

As part of an increase in tobacco taxes designed to pay for children's health insurance, the nickel-per-cigar tax that has ruled the industry could rise to as much as $10 per cigar.

"I'm not sure in the history of man, since our forefathers founded the country in 1776, that there's ever been a tax increase of 20,000 percent," said Newman, who runs the Tampa business founded by grandfather Julius Caesar Newman. "They had the Boston Tea Party for less than this."

My coolerdor's cigar stock would last me for years if this atrocity were to actually become law; but beyond that I guess I'd do what many do now with Cubans and order overseas by a company that ships said packages discretely.