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View Full Version : "For the Children" = "Hide your Wallet" by John Stossel




disorderlyvision
02-15-2010, 01:46 PM
http://stossel.blogs.foxbusiness.com/2010/02/14/for-the-children-hide-your-wallet/


There is no limit to the overbearing arrogance of our "representatives." They believe they were elected to force people to live a better, smarter life.

Utah State Rep. Paul Ray, a Republican, has been driven to action by his family's decision to smoke.

His mother wheels an oxygen cart with her since she was stricken with emphysema after nearly 50 years of smoking.

His father died from the habit and Ray says doctors have blamed his own heart defect, which has resulted in four different surgeries, on his mother's smoking.

Ray's action is not trying to get his parents to stop smoking. Ray's a politician, so his solution is to raise taxes.

Ray's proposal would raise the tax from its current level of 69.5 cents per pack up to $1.71. In the process, he said, it would make 13,000 people quit smoking and deter 19,000 children from taking up the habit in the first place.

Social engineering is usually explained as being "for the children."

People who earn a living by working, as opposed to posturing in legislatures, don't buy it.

David Davis, vice president of the Utah Retail Merchants Association, said (the tax) would hurt a shaky economy and is a shortsighted money grab.

"We're not going to decrease consumption. However, what we're going to do is push these sales into other channels outside the state or onto the Internet," he said, warning that Twinkies and video games could be next to be taxed to combat childhood obesity.

You betcha... because it's all about "the children."