OLD AND BUSTED: Tax the Rich.

The New Hotness? Tax the poor! Thursday is the last day before new Oregon tobacco tax hikes cigarette prices $2 per pack.

As Reason magazine notes, “Cigarette taxes hurt the poor. Cigarette taxes are extremely regressive. The poor pay a larger chunk of their income to the tax than the wealthy. This is further exacerbated by the fact that low-income, low-education and minority populations all smoke more than high-income, high-education and white populations, and by a good bit. Nearly a third of people below the poverty line smoke, while only 18% of those at or above the poverty line do. A tax on cigarettes is therefore paid mostly by society’s poorest individuals.”