{"id":227717,"date":"2010-01-25T17:44:13","date_gmt":"2010-01-25T22:44:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.szone.us\/f20\/states-cut-pointless-anti-tobacco-funding-38575\/"},"modified":"2010-01-25T17:44:13","modified_gmt":"2010-01-25T22:44:13","slug":"states-cut-pointless-anti-tobacco-funding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/227717","title":{"rendered":"States cut pointless anti-tobacco funding"},"content":{"rendered":"
States cut pointless anti-tobacco funding <\/p>\n

Remember those zillion-dollar tobacco settlement funds that were supposed to pay for anti-smoking propaganda? <\/p>\n

Well, now politicians are deciding they need that money for other things — probably more bridges to nowhere — and those funds are drying up. <\/p>\n

That didn’t take long, did it? Those government clowns burn through piles of cash faster than I can light up a fine Dominican cigar. <\/p>\n

The 1998 settlement requires Big Tobacco to make huge annual payments to the states… with the understanding that a significant portion of the money go toward tobacco-related programs like anti-smoking campaigns. <\/p>\n

But a new report finds that state governments cut $103.4 million, or more than 15 percent, from their anti-tobacco propaganda funds, despite collecting more cash from that settlement than ever before. <\/p>\n

And in the coming year, those states will collect more than $25 billion from that tobacco settlement fund and tobacco taxes… but spend just over 2 percent of it — $567.5 million — on tobacco-prevention programs. <\/p>\n

I’ve never known a politician who could keep his grimy hands out of the cookie jar, and this latest news shows just how badly they need to spend every dollar in sight on pork-barrel projects. <\/p>\n

And with money tighter than ever, they’re raising taxes, adding fees and pinching from every fund in sight. <\/p>\n

Normally, I’d be outraged. <\/p>\n

But in this case, I’m as pleased as punch — because the anti-tobacco movement is one of the most underhanded, misguided, ill-informed nanny-state campaigns ever created. The ridiculous "public service" spots paid for with these funds are among the worst commercials on TV — every bit as bad as Big Pharma’s drug ads when it comes to misinformation and half-truths. <\/p>\n

And that’s saying something. <\/p>\n

If you enjoy smoking, take my advice: Keep right on enjoying it, until they pry that last butt from your tobacco-stained fingertips. Just remember to take the smoke into your mouth, not your lungs — the membrane inside your cheeks will absorb everything you need to get all the benefits. <\/p>\n

Then be sure to exhale your second-hand smoke in full view of the tobacco-loathing, money-burning nanny-staters. <\/p>\n

Seeing right through this smokescreen, <\/p>\n

William Campbell Douglass II, M.D. <\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

States cut pointless anti-tobacco funding Remember those zillion-dollar tobacco settlement funds that were supposed to pay for anti-smoking propaganda? Well, now politicians are deciding they need that money for other things — probably more bridges to nowhere — and those funds are drying up. That didn’t take long, did it? Those government clowns burn through […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4296,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-227717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4296"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=227717"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227717\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}