Tom Coburn, who is a smart enough man to realize the futility of gun control, doesn’t seem to think you or I should be able to light up. Just what we need! Another drug to have a war on. Because, you know, it’s worked out so well for all the other ones.
Note to Senator Coburn: this kind of crap is why Republicans lose.
I would like to see the tax revenue from tobacco cut off. Starve the beast, but banning it is still a silly idea.
I hope WI dems lose after they banned public smoking in Wisconsin. Silly nanny-statism. Coburn may have been trying to make a point, but he should know better.
You can have my Rocky Patel Vintage 1990s when you pry them from cold dead hands. At that point, they’ll likely be on the ground next to my AR-15.
I concur. The only place I see tobacco growing regularly is in Amish country when I drive up to see family in Lancaster county- I keep picturing ATF “teams” storming Amish country and taking down horse and buggies and setting fire to the barns the evil plant is being dried in… First they came for the transfats…
I didn’t dig too deeply into this, but I wondered if Coburn didn’t do this as a “put up or shut up” sort of ultimatum?
I’ve seen this spun as part of a political play and Coburn has no intentions of banning tobacco. That might be true.
If that is true what I think it shows is the GOP still has no idea how the media works and how badly stupid stunts like this will hurt them.
“If that is true what I think it shows is the GOP still has no idea how the media works and how badly stupid stunts like this will hurt them.”
It probably would.
What I would really like to see is something a MO State Rep proposed about a year or so ago, but didn’t get anywhere. Was called the ‘Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is’ bill, basically, it would allow any city, county, whatever, to pass all the smoking bans they wanted, BUT, if they did, then were not allowed to collect taxes on tobacco.
What I’ve always thought was bad was that even before Obam’ter rammed through that last tax the government was already making more off a pack of smokes than the company that sold it was.
Dr. Coburn’s seat is safe. He may be dead wrong on this issue, but he’s right on a lot more.
I think he was trying to make a point about taking billions of tax dollars from tobacco on the one hand while continuously prosthletizing about how horrible it is on the other hand. “If it’s so bad, why don’t you just ban it.”
Could have used a press release to that effect, though.
I gotta say—as someone who completely supports the NYC ban on smoking in bars, clubs and restaurants—that I would never support an outright ban on tobacco or smoking.