Despite the rhetoric, it is apparent that the emergence of tobacco harm reduction products such as e-cigarettes has helped to reduce young adult smoking. It’s time for policymakers to embrace the role of tobacco harm reduction and actually protect public health rather than spew misinformation.
In each state analysis, smoking rates are examined among lower income persons, defined as having an income of $24,999 or less and determine the rate of change in the two years after state and federal cigarette tax increases. The studies also examine the rates of smoking among high income earners (defined as $50,000 or more) in the aftermath of tax increases.
In 19 years, the Pine Tree State allocated only $231.9 million toward tobacco control programs. During the same time period, Maine received an estimated $2.377 billion in cigarette tax revenue and $1.058 billion in tobacco tax settlement payments.
Today, the Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA) called for real reform as the United States Postal Service (USPS) reported an $82 million net loss for the second quarter of fiscal year (FY) 2021. While this number is significantly lower than the net loss of $4.5 billion for the second quarter of FY 2020, non-cash workers' compensation adjustments obscure the true extent of the loss at the USPS. Excluding these adjustments, second quarter losses would have totaled approximately $1.7 billion compared to a loss of approximately $1.9 billion for the second quarter of FY 2020. In total, the USPS has lost more than $80 billion since 2007.
Today, the Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA) called for real reform as the United States Postal Service (USPS) reported an $82 million net loss for the second quarter of fiscal year (FY) 2021. While this number is significantly lower than the net loss of $4.5 billion for the second quarter of FY 2020, non-cash workers' compensation adjustments obscure the true extent of the loss at the USPS. Excluding these adjustments, second quarter losses would have totaled approximately $1.7 billion compared to a loss of approximately $1.9 billion for the second quarter of FY 2020. In total, the USPS has lost more than $80 billion since 2007.
As the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Communications & Technology meets to discuss increasing broadband access, it should keep in mind lessons from the past – the failures of taxpayer-funded broadband networks and the successes in reducing red tape to close the digital divide.
The Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA) strongly condemns the decision by the Biden Administration to back a World Trade Organization waiver of the patents on vaccine technology that helped produce the Covid-19 vaccines in record time.
The UK should not have to defend its tobacco harm reduction products to WHO, a taxpayer-funded organization that purports to protect global health, but staunchly disregards novel tobacco products. At the publication of the APPG for Vaping report, MP Mark Pawsey – and chair of the APPG Vaping group – declared that with “WHO taking an increasingly hostile stance on vaping, it is more important than ever that the UK be guided by the science.”
The Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA) reacted to the decision of the Facebook Oversight Board regarding the company’s ban on former President Trump. The Oversight Board upheld the ban pending a six-month review period for Facebook to further justify its decision.
Unions have certainly been in the news this past year. They loomed large in discussions about the prudency of reopening schools for the nation’s children – with many states and localities ultimately caving to the unions’ desire to keep them closed. They played an outsized role in the closure of businesses who could not afford to pay the wages unions demanded amidst the pandemic. It appears Congress will once again make them the focus of national attention with its consideration of the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act. And if President Biden’s first joint address to Congress is any indication, the Biden administration will push hard for this flawed piece of legislation.
