Even the piecemeal tax increases contained in the Lebanese Ministry of Finance’s 2010 budget proposal are insulting. The private sector and the expatriate community — the two entities that keep the Lebanese economy alive and the government afloat — can’t help but feel that they’re being forced to give more blood to the leeches of the state and still receive nothing in return. For example, in some countries taxes on cigarettes help cover healthcare costs. In Lebanon, taxes are what the Ministry of Finance, through the Regie Libanaise du Tabac et Tombacs, uses to pay tobacco farmers for their crop, at times registering up to a 500 percent loss. This is insane. Such complaints are not just the moaning of the wealthy. This is a reaction to the crude policies of a government that, under pressure from donor nations to get its fiscal house in order, will further burden those
