Ok, so I promise that politics won’t come into things very often. After all, we’re about tobacco issues, not politics. But of course, when they cross paths we can’t help but to bring it up…
Libertarian candidate, Bob Barr, has spoken out against further government (FDA) regulation of tobacco. Personally, I think what he says is spot on:
Atlanta, GA — When all of the leading politicians agree on a policy in Washington, “you can bet the house that the public interest will suffer,” observes Bob Barr, the Libertarian Party presidential candidate. So it is with proposed legislation to expand the authority of the Food and Drug Administration to tobacco.
We all know that smoking is bad for people’s health, but most of us also believe that America remains a free country, in which people should be able to make mistakes. Yet for years “would-be national nannies have been attempting to give the FDA the power to regulate cigarettes and other tobacco products,” says Barr. The latest proposal is moving through Congress with the support of the Republican and Democratic presidential contenders.
But “the last thing we need today is more regulation and more bureaucrats, which inevitably means less freedom,” explains Barr. People know smoking is bad for their health, which is why ever fewer people light up. Washington should leave smokers and other tobacco users alone.
“We should be particularly skeptical when a major business, in this case Philip Morris, lobbies for regulation,” notes Barr. That usually means the proposal is written to benefit a particular company or interest rather than the public. “If we want to preserve America’s prosperity and freedom, we need to be cutting, not increasing, regulation,” adds Barr.
Barr represented the 7th District of Georgia in the U. S. House of Representatives from 1995 to 2003, where he served as a senior member of the Judiciary Committee, as Vice-Chairman of the Government Reform Committee, and as a member of the Committee on Financial Services. Prior to his congressional career, Barr was appointed by President Reagan to serve as the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia, and also served as an official with the CIA.
Since leaving Congress, Barr has been practicing law and has teamed up with groups ranging from the American Civil Liberties Union to the American Conservative Union to actively advocate every American citizens’ right to privacy and other civil liberties guaranteed in the Bill of Rights. Along with this, Bob is committed to helping elect leaders who will strive for smaller government, lower taxes and abundant individual freedom.
While we are nonpartisan, let’s not forget that McCain waged a personal war against tobacco from his spot in the Senate and we know the Obama advocates for a nanny state to end all nanny states… Barr seems to be the only major candidate on our side where freedom and tobacco are concerned. So let’s not forget that we are not stuck in a two-party system and voting for the lesser of two evils means we still lose.
Filed under: Good News | Tagged: bob barr, election 2008, fda tobacco regulation, government interference
Sen. McCain once snarled at me while we both waited to cross a Washington street because I had a cigarette in my hand.
Obama is, at least, a closet smoker.
Honestly, Tim, I don’t find that surprising in the least. From what I have read, McCain has some sort of personal grudge against tobacco and smoking, which he [of course] lets bleed over into politics.
What worries me about Obama is that I find the closet smokers to be the ones who go out and try to make the biggest changes because they’re trying to make up for their own self-perceived shortcomings.