The Nanny States of America – Part Two

Welcome to the Nanny States of America; Part Two. In the first part of this series on tobacco tyranny, I painted a broad historical picture. In this installment, I’m going to get more granular and address some of the more salient points regarding the use of taxes on tobacco, the structures placed upon we tobacco users, plus a couple of the regulations we are heretofore forced to comply with.

Let us start with the smoking bans: Like many movements the smoking ban seemed to start in California beginning with their original cry of “…to save the children.” Like Paul Revere shouting the “British are coming” the “It’s for the children” was heard across the country.

Who would not want to save a child? Don’t get me wrong: I am all for saving the children. And let’s admit it, some marketing of tobacco products were questionable as to their intended target audience.

Soon, many people blindly joined the bandwagon and before long they became a mob, with mob mentality. They began to forget “We the People…” and began thinking in terms of Harrison Bergerac. Those blind followers began telling people tobacco was evil and hence those who use tobacco are somehow bad.

This lead to groups lobbying state representatives to ban smoking in ALL public places, using their rally cries of “To save the children…” and “An adult is able to make the decision to ruin their lives but a child doesn’t.” Then at some point it was no longer just the children. Ominously it morphed into “these tobacco users must be saved from themselves.”

So the Smoking Bans spread like wildfire across the nation using California as a template. Soon the taxes on items considered sinful such as alcohol and tobacco began to rise. In next to no time, the state and federal government found a huge new source of income.

Across the country, government (federal, state and cities) raised taxes to fund new projects. The anti-tobacco Nazis’ professed reason for the sin tax increases was the drain on our health care system these evil products produced.

It worked in California, right? They even spelled out how and where the money from the taxes was to be used. I like the way this chart lays it all out.

But the question becomes, “How much money is really being spent on these things?” You hear all the time how a government agency will borrow money from this fund or that to pay for something the money was never intended for in the first place…. because the money for THAT program was spent on something else.

How much of the money selected for Tobacco prevention, control, or even education is really being used for these projects? How much of this money has been siphoned off to pay for Senator Joe Blow’s raise he voted to give himself? Let’s face it… it is hard work stealing money from the American people to pay for this or that new and improved project nobody asked for while our children go hungry, or the street goes unpaved while they have to fund their next reelection campaign.

Of course, like in California, several people took this as a sign. It is time to quit using tobacco and all those tax dollars the State was looking forward to fell. If the money was not being spent on tobacco and its taxes, then they could be spent else where. Health insurance companies and drug companies saw this and increased premiums in order to find their fair share of the lost sin tax money… reason? So they could produce programs on “quit smoking” and products to help people to “kick the habit.” Some companies, who have nothing to do with the tobacco OR health care industry have also picked up a torch against tobacco users.

President Obama was and is a smoker. He had his physical yesterday where he admitted to still smoking. The White House Doctor told him to continue using…nicotine gum. So he is (or should I say WE are) paying the drug company, whose goal is to do away with or lower, the amount of nicotine in tobacco enough to the point of those who are hooked on the nicotine must buy their product.

Whatever you think of Obama, no one can deny that being President of the United States is a very stressful job. Look how it tends to age them while in office even after only one term.

Candidate Obama “switched” to nicotine gum about a year and a half ago in an effort to quit politically-incorrect cigarettes. As of today, he is still smoking and still chewing Big Pharma’s nicotine gum. Perhaps if he had switched to Real Swedish Snus instead of the ineffectual gum, patch, or other low-dose nicotine failures, he wouldn’t be smoking today. Hey Mr. President, maybe just for once, you should listen to us, (you know the people? The ones you claim to be working so hard for?) instead of all those “advisers.”

I’m not going to even address here the hypocrisy of Smoker Obama signing The Tobacco Act and setting the stage for FDA to ban as many tobacco and flavored tobacco products as possible. I wonder if he smokes menthol cigarettes? No matter; his rules only apply to “the little people”. It makes me sick.

One company here in Ohio, whom I shall refer to as Company XYZ, charges their employees who use tobacco an extra $30 per pay check to be put into a fund to help the non-tobacco users pay for their insurance coverage. So let me lay it out: an employee at this company who uses tobacco is first charged a higher premium by the health care provider AND another $30 per pay check by their employer to be put into a fund for the employee NON-tobacco users to pay his or her LOWER premium charged by the SAME health care provider. Isn’t there a law against this… you would think so but you would be wrong. Does the word Socialist come to mind? Or is even that high-minded? The bully in the playground taking your lunch money because he is bigger than you is probably closer to the truth.

If we look at the larger picture we must also take into account the taxes the government is making from those who work in the tobacco industry. (Federal, state, and city taxes paid by workers, and the companies, in addition to the people buying the tobacco.) As a tobacco user I am paying higher rates for not only health insurance but LIFE insurance as well. Seems to me, as a tobacco user, I am supporting and paying my fair share of money. So how am I a drain on the system? As tobacco user…I am the system!

I love it when an anti-tobacco Nazi tells me how my tobacco use is affecting them. I tell them my tobacco taxes support hundreds of programs THEY support. If I use the California chart, referred to above, then the taxes I pay for tobacco products in California will or should cover: Backfill of California Children and Families First Trust, (What is that?) Fund Rural Health Services Program—reimbursement of emergency care physicians, (Oh ok is this the basis for the new health care program they are all up in arms about in Washington?) College loan repayment program to encourage physicians to serve low-income areas lacking physicians, (So I help them though college then pay how much again for treatment?) Obesity, diabetes, and chronic diseases programs, (How is this related to tobacco use?) and a dozen types of cancer research programs, (Which seems the only one to sound like it should be funded by the tobacco taxes.)

This is in addition to anti-tobacco programs such as: Tobacco control media campaign, Tobacco control competitive grants program, Local health department tobacco prevention program, Tobacco prevention education programs, Tobacco control enforcement activities, Evaluation of tobacco control programs, and Tobacco control research. It looks like bureaucracy at its best, which is terrible. How much control do they need? Can you say, “Redundant?” I knew you could! What programs are they funding which they are not telling us about?

If the funds for these programs are used for these programs and all the anti-tobacco programs worked then who would buy tobacco? Who would pay the tax which funds these programs? How would they fund these programs? What would these anti’s turn on next?

The Surgeon General has proclaimed just about EVERYTHING we eat, drink, and even the air we breathe is dangerous to our health. So again I ask… what is next… tax the air? Oh I forgot they are doing that now… the latest Clean Air Act.

The amount of fat in our diets… Oops they have that one too… remember from the chart, “Obesity.” People who are over weight are looked down upon almost as much as tobacco users; however that is different can of worms for another time.

Someone once said, “As goes California… so does the rest of the country.” It seems to me if California is the template for the rest of the country then shouldn’t some one note their economy? The state is bankrupt. And they want us to agree to do the same to the rest of the country?

I say, “NO!” I say we stand up and take back our government. They work for us, don’t they? It is suppose to be a government OF the people, BY the people, FOR the people. What part do they NOT understand? I am a tax paying, higher premium paying, grown adult, and I do NOT need THEIR permission to use tobacco!

In the next article I hope to show how history is slowly repeating itself in America, and no one seems to notice. So please stay tuned to this same Bat Channel, for The Nanny States of America; Part Three.

Until then, I’m still

CATHERINE DeMARSH-HELLWIG