" Smokers now are significant carriers of special tax burdens, which various state and Federal legislatures regularly mandate to fund public-health-related expenses. The logic, if you can call it that, escapes me... These lawmakers claim that raising the price (actually, the tax) will induce more smokers to quit, while at the same time depending on the revenue they generate at our expense not to decrease! "

Use demand-curve analysis! As the tax goes up, demand goes down (smokers quit), but the remaining smokers pay more taxes. Total revenue is the product of (number of smokers) x (tax per smoker) which is a curve which will have a maximum at some point, and that is the optimum tax rate at which revenue is maximized: no more, no less. This is how the price for every product we consume is determined.

Of course, that may not get too many people to quit.