Scoop: North Carolina lawmakers push to repeal Biden’s anti-cigarette move that will “fuel crime, strengthen black markets, and leave our communities picking up the pieces”
"Today, it’s menthol cigarettes," Rep. Pat Harrigan said. "Tomorrow it’s meat, cars, or anything else they decide you shouldn’t have."
The Biden administration’s “de-facto ban on cigarettes” is a “perfect parting gift for the cartels and organized crime,” Sen. Thom Tillis (R., N.C.) told the Washington Reporter, as incoming President Donald Trump reportedly plans to help “scrap this ridiculous proposed rule.”
The Reporter previously covered the Biden administration’s Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) plan for a cigarette ban; now, the proposal is out — and it could devastate the 27,000 North Carolina jobs supported by tobacco, Tillis warned.
Rep. Tim Moore (R., N.C.) told the Reporter that “if this isn’t an attack on North Carolina and on agriculture, I don’t know what is.”
“I would hope and I would imagine that he will roll this mandate back…[Biden is] making it easier for dangerous drugs to get on our streets and yet he simply wants to weigh in now against cigarettes that adults can legally buy,” Moore said. “It is a nonsensical rule that does nothing. It would upend an industry that is obviously important to North Carolina but that is important, frankly, to the nation too. I think it’s irresponsible.”
Rep. Pat Harrigan (R., N.C.) echoed Moore’s criticisms.
"The Biden administration’s menthol cigarette ban is a full-scale assault on North Carolina jobs, businesses, and freedom. Over 27,000 hardworking families stand to lose their livelihoods, while $49 billion in economic impact is torched overnight,” Harrigan said.
“Prohibition doesn’t work — it never has,” Harrigan continued. “This ban will fuel crime, strengthen black markets, and leave our communities picking up the pieces. And let’s not kid ourselves: this is just the start. Today, it’s menthol cigarettes — tomorrow it’s meat, cars, or anything else they decide you shouldn’t have. This fight is about more than one bad policy — it’s about stopping an out-of-control government from crushing our way of life.”
Others warn that the proposal could have even more nefarious side effects.
“Biden is simply empowering the cartels and costing billions in revenue to the United States,” a Trumpworld source told the Reporter. “President Trump can right this wrong by scrapping the rule completely.”
Beyond the possibilities for mass job losses, the nonpartisan Tax Foundation estimated that a cigarette ban akin to the FDA proposal would cost over $30 billion in tax revenues on both state and federal levels.
