Another Step to the Nanny State
The last few weeks, I’ve been less than verbose here. Terminally quiet is likely a better way to put it. In many ways, I’ve been watching in horror as the Federal Behemoth rolls along, driving us closer and closer to the Democratic Utopia of a Nanny State. In the last couple of days, something popped up that made me growlly in enough of a different way that I actually felt a need to write something.
It looks like a bill to bill to further limit cigarettes in the US is on its way to the President’s desk. Before anyone starts making assumptions, I don’t smoke and never have (which is saying something, given that I grew up in Winston-Salem, NC, with half my extended family working for RJR). Personally, I think it’s a disgusting, dirty habit that people need to quit. However, I fully support someone’s personal choice to burn their lungs and eventually kill themselves if that’s what they really want to do.
Enter the Federal Government, though, and we have a new law in the offing that would give the FDA unprecedented control over a private industry in determining how they can advertise and how they make their product. Nevermind this is just another step on the Obama road to Economic Fascism. It’s for the good of the people, right?
I’m sure my position on this comes as no surprise to anyone that’s known for a while. I firmly believe that the decision to do drugs of any sort is a personal decision into which no one else needs to be poking their head on a governmental level. And I certainly don’t agree in laws being passed that allow the Government to reach its meddling hands even further into a free market.
Honestly, the tobacco industry is on the decline anyway. Yes, people still smoke, but it’s not the glamorous thing it used to be. City after city are passing laws to restrict what public places are smoking okay (granted, at the end of the day, I’m not that okay with that, either). More people realize that smoking is bad for you and avoiding it is the best option. But that’s not good enough for the current crop of politicians in Washington.
Of course, you also don’t hear anyone up there making the cry of ‘this will cost jobs.’ After all, this is an already denigrated industry, so it’s “safe” to curtail production there and cost jobs. It reminds me of the Denis Leary sketch about animals and which ones are okay to kill for things and which aren’t. For those familiar with it, the tobacco industry is the cow, while the auto industry is the otter.
Do I think this is going to be stopped at this point? No, not really. The big hurdle anymore has been the Senate, and it’s already passed through there before going to the House. This will end up being yet another tick on the checklist being kept somewhere of how to give the Federal Government complete control over the US Economy. But it’s okay, right? After all, we’ll still have American Idol and Survivor to keep people distracted.