Tobacco Apologista

We have another OP-ED piece in the Herald-Leader from a shill for big tobacco. This one comes from Jim Waters, Director of Policy and Communications for the Bluegrass Institute.

First off let’s understand where the Bluegrass Institute stands. They are anti-union, pro big business, in favor of giving tax money for private schools; support Bush’s policies in Iraq, and in favor of tort reform. They pretty much follow the right wing Republican agenda.

Waters arguments on raising he cigarette tax are basically these:

Poor people smoke the most and can’t afford to pay the price of their addiction.

Can the poor afford to pay all of the costs of smoking, not just the price of a pack of cigarettes? Waters is just blowing smoke when he talks about costs. His argument just looks at the tip of the ice berg when it comes to cost.

If his argument was applied to the cost of having children, he would have us believe that the only cost associated with having children is the cost of bailing them out of the hospital after the birth and the next 18 to 21 years are free, he completely ignores long term issues.

Retailers will go under and lay off thousands of people.

True there may be some job losses, among farmers, cigarette factories workers, advertisers, and retailers. But the money that used to be spent on cigarettes does NOT disappear from the economy. When people cut back their smoking or quit, they spend the money they save on other things, this generates new jobs in other sectors. There is just as much of a possibility that increasing tobacco taxes could generate more jobs than it costs.

The essential fact here is not that people have quit spending money, but they buy something other than cigarettes.

Education works better than tax as a deterrent to smoking.

This makes as much sense as abstinence training stops teens from having sex. In 1994-95 a study of the effectiveness of Choosing the Best was conducted by Northwestern University Medical School 60% of students, who had had sex, indicated an intention to be abstinent.

The real deterrent to smoking is the cost of the product, the details are here.

Legislators will violate their no new tax pledge.

That would be a shocker, a legislator breaking a promise. The lemmings that follow Grover Norquist shouting the “No New Taxes” sound bite are really too stupid to be in the legislature. They limit their options and the options of the people they represent.

I don’t think every tax is a good tax, but to not consider the option shows me a legislator that has the capacity of viewing all their options from A to B.

Waters arguments are short sighted, largely unsupported by facts and rigidly doctrinaire in support of a right wing, consequence be damned philosophy.