Section 100122 of the 2012 highway bill is unconstitutional. It picks winners and losers. It’s an arbitrary abuse of the Federal government’s power to tax and regulate commerce. We want this provision made NULL and VOID.
We have one chance. We are asking the President of the United States to defend us from Big Tobacco’s assault.
GOOD MORNING! It’s Sunday, July 1, 2012. July, already?! Yes. We are focused on the slim but REAL chance we can speak to the White House about the unfair and horribly fraudulent Big Tobacco bailout in the highway bill. Section 100122 of the highway bill is an arbitrary and immediate reclassification of small retail tobacco shops. It reclassifies these shops as “manufacturers” and sends them immediately to the unemployment line because there’s basically NO WAY they can qualify for manufacturer status. The Congressional Budget Office has already found that the effect of this provision is NOT to collect tax dollars from small shops; it is a provision that will CLOSE these small shops and FORCE them to close.
This was a provision written, bought, and paid for by the Big Tobacco companies. It’s an overreach of the power vested in Congress. It’s a fraud on free enterprise and we want it made NULL and VOID. President Obama has the power to help us. He can issue a signing statement when he signs the highway bill that says something like:
“Regarding Section 100122, I have concluded it is an inappropriate use of Federal powers to ‘reclassify’ retail establishments as manufacturers in such an immediate and arbitrary manner. I understand the authors of this provision seek to close a perceived tax code loophole, but this remedy is far beyond what is required to address this issue and creates the real and immediate potential for severe unintended economic consequences. I will instruct my Administration to work with the Congress in remedying this situation as expeditiously as possible.”
Mr. President, people across the United States will lose their jobs next week because of Congress and Big Tobacco. Please act to protect jobs.
I got involved in this fight because I like to smoke my own custom blend. The Big Tobacco companies produce a product I don’t like, so I roll my own. Every week, I head down to the local tobacco shop, pull out my favorite blend (spicy pear), and roll my own smokes. Now, Congress and the Big Tobacco companies have colluded to foreclose on my freedom to roll my own. I don’t understand. How is it that something that’s been around since the Egyptians first figured out how to roll smokes, is now being outlawed by the United States Government? Please, Mr. President. Please help us fight this unfair assault on freedom, and Big Tobacco’s attempt to solidify their monopoly.
Today’s Message: I’m fighting for my #job! Make Sec.100122 of the highway bill NULL and VOID. It’s unconstitutional! http://bit.ly/NewTax
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Are you one of the masses not yet on Facebook or unwilling to Twitter? You can still make HUGE and valuable contributions by using traditional methods to spread our message! Call them. Email them. Use this link for their contact information forms:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/write-or-call
Call to leave a comment about the highway bill: 202-456-1111
Tell the President: “When you sign the highway bill, please issue a signing statement to make Section 100122 null and void. It’s nothing more than a favor to the Big Tobacco companies, it will close my business and people will lose their jobs immediately! I’m a retailer, not a manufacturer. This isn’t good government. Please tell Congress you can’t in good conscience interpret Section 100122 as a fair way to conduct government.”
http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/submit-questions-and-comments
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taxtracker 
“When you sign the highway bill, please issue a signing statement to make Section 100122 null and void. It’s nothing more than a favor to the Big Tobacco companies, it will close my business and people will lose their jobs immediately! I’m a retailer, not a manufacturer. This isn’t good government. Please tell Congress you can’t in good conscience interpret Section 100122 as a fair way to conduct government.”whats next you going stop us from canning foods and make us buy name brand food products
Hate to inform you, but you people are grasping at straws. The President can not “line veto” an item, nor do “signing statements” have any legal effect. He can only veto the entire law, which will not happen.
“Unlike vetoes, signing statements are not part of the legislative process as set forth in the Constitution, and have no legal effect. A signed law is still a law regardless of what the President says in an accompanying signing statement. In 1972, after President Nixon in a signing statement indicated that a provision in a bill submitted to him did not “represent the policies of this Administration” and was “without binding force or effect,” a federal district court held that no executive statement, even by a President, “denying efficacy to the legislation could have either validity or effect.” DaCosta v. Nixon, 55 F.R.D. 145, 146 (E.D.N.Y. 1972).”
http://www.loc.gov/law/help/statements.php – Straight from the Library of Congress.
Jim, I appreciate your looking at that, but your information is outdated (1972). While it is true the line item veto was thrown out by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1998, you might want to check the White House website and recent news coverage about Presidents Bush and Obama using signing statements to adjust the implementation of law. Specifically look at this: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/12/31/statement-president-hr-1540 and this http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Memorandum-on-Presidential-Signing-Statements/.
There’s no doubt we have a slim chance, but it is a real chance. Let’s work!
Mr. President I stand behind you and will be voting for you again but you must not sign Section 100122 into law all it does is make more money for the large tobacco companies. I do not make much money have not seen a movie in over 10 years because i can not afford to go never eat out and have not been on a vacation in over 20 years smoking is my one vice that I truly enjoy please do not make it more expensive for me to do my only enjoyment in life. I truly do like almost all of your ideas and i am looking forward to having some kind of medical coverage in the near future thanks to your plan .Please have some compassion for the low income workers who still like some enjoyment out of live like smoking.