RUSH: Anyway, to the phones we go. This is Howard in Oklahoma City. You’re next, sir. It’s great to have you with us on the EIB Network.
CALLER: Thank you for taking my call, Rush.
RUSH: Yeah, yeah.
CALLER: You realize that you alone are going to be the demise of the cigar industry in the United States? Because of you, the Democrats are targeting cigars because you are a cigar smoker.
RUSH: Well, I am the nation’s most prominent cigar smoker, maybe right next to Arnold Schwarzenegger, and both of us can afford the tax, as Bill Clinton would say.
CALLER: But the cigar industry, with a $10-per-cigar tax, the cigar industry is doomed, so, you know, Cigar Aficionado magazine will go out of business, and it’s all your fault.
RUSH: (Laughing.)
CALLER: (Laughing.)
RUSH: Well, just so you know, I did take the blame for this when I first heard of this tax because I do think there’s a little bit of it that’s personally targeted, but believe me most of it’s not. They actually believe that cigar smokers are the upper crust, super-rich guys that couldn’t care less and go out and pay for it. It’s just like the yacht tax. You know, they passed a luxury tax back in the nineties on such things as yachts and things and people didn’t stop buying them. They just went someplace where there wasn’t a tax, and the people ended up getting hurt, were the people that make the yachts, and they had to rescind that tax. They had a tax is on jewelry items and a number of other things — and that’s where they really goofed it up. You put a luxury tax on jewelry and you’ve angered the female population. They all Democrats out there crave the women’s vote. If the word got out the Democrats are the reason they’re not getting diamonds and rubies and so forth for their birthdays, anniversaries, divorce presents or what have you, then all hell breaks loose. So that and the yacht tax combined — I don’t think this is ever going to see the light of day. I don’t think a ten-dollar tax on cigars will ever see the light of day, because it would put the cigar business out of business. I don’t think the Democrats would like to do that. They target enemies and set out to destroy ’em. Exactly what they say Karl Rove does, is precisely what they do.
RUSH: This is ‘Red Dog’ in Seneca Falls, New York.
CALLER: Mega dittos, Rush!
RUSH: How you doing, ‘Red Dog’?
CALLER: Ha-ha. I’m fine. Up state New York, Seneca Falls, birthplace of women’s rights. We have a big National Park here. Hillary and Bill been here a couple times.
RUSH: Right. I’m sure.
CALLER: My comment was can we get to the Indian reservation and buy cigars where there’s no tax?
RUSH: You know, it’s interesting because you can do that with cigarettes. There’s no tax on cigarettes at Indian reservations.
CALLER: I have a gas station that the Indians own one mile from my house. I can buy a pack of cigarettes there, or cartons of cigarettes there. Gas is cheap. They don’t have pay no tax on it.
RUSH: I don’t know about inside the casinos, though. Other than in Las Vegas, I’ve never been in a casino in this country, and I’ve not been in an Indian casino — that I know of, anyway.
CALLER: I have not been to one, but they’re going to build ’em up here in New York. They’ve gotta deal with Spitzer. It’s going to be down in the Catskills.
RUSH: I know. I just did a story out there, ‘Red Dog.’ They’re building them everywhere for tax revenue and so forth.
CALLER: I heard that while I was waiting.
RUSH: But they’re not all going to be Indian-owned casinos.
CALLER: Indians will own them, and they’ll have handlers.
RUSH: Well, maybe the one you’re talking about.
CALLER: There’s a big one up here. Tiger’s coming up to play in the tournament at Turning Stone. That’s about 90 miles from us. It’s Oneida nation.
RUSH: Oh, yeah. Are you going to go?
CALLER: Heh-heh-heh. I’ll decline.
RUSH: Okay. Well, I’ll tell you, this whole Indian casino business is funny, because —
CALLER: Whooo.
RUSH: Well, not funny, but you’re close to how these things get structured, but regardless. I’m going to have to check into that. I’m sure you can buy — you know I don’t know because, as I say, I’ve not been in any casino outside of Las Vegas. I’ve been into a casino. I did a speech in one Louisiana for Hal Sutton and David Toms and a charity thing, but I walked through to a private meeting room and then went to a ballroom, did the speech, and left. So I didn’t go in the casino. I think that’s the only Indian casino. I may have been to one out in Paul Springs. No, I’ve just driven by that one. (interruption) You’ve been to one? Snerdley’s been in an Indian casino in Seattle with totally tax-free cigarettes. But you didn’t buy a cigar so you don’t know if cigars are tax-free. It’s the one great thing about casinos, you can still smoke in them and the people in them don’t care. They’re starting to get some little Nimrods in there. Well, that’s one of the great things about going to Las Vegas. You can go to a casino, light up your cigar, play, and everybody accepts it. It’s just cool. It’s like a flashback to the old days when people weren’t panicked and trying to tell everybody how they had to live and so forth. But Snerdley says the Seattle casinos are tax-free on the tobacco products. It’s 40 miles outside Seattle. This tax-free business, it may exist, but trust me, it isn’t going to last even for the Indians.