Cigarette Smoking Obama Set to Ban Cigarettes

According to Yahoo News, Democrat President Barack Obama is about to sign a law that was sent to him by the Democrat-controlled Congress that will give the bureaucratic national Food and Drug Administration unprecedented authority to regulate the ingredients that a private company puts into its products, regulate advertising of these companies, and put in place rules that make these products less flavorful. The legislation is called the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act.

Whatever your views on smoking are, and I happen to find it a disgusting habit, this legislation is wrong. It gives the national government to decide that it doesn't like a particular product and can use its power to attack any company that produces this product and drive it out of business. It gives unelected bureaucrats the power to control a major industry in our nation, controlling the products themselves and their advertising, controlling free speech and getting the government further involved with private businesses. It will lead to more corruption, more pay-offs, and more tyranny.

If you feel smoking is a threat to life because of second-hand smoke, than ban it outright. But if it isn't, then it is not the government's business to suppress liberty and seize property. As the yahoo article points out, anti-smoking advocates have been pushing for years for this bill so that they can control an industry fundamental to the U.S. These groups who personally oppose smoking know that once this bill is signed, they can lobby and pay off politicians to drive something underground that they personally oppose. It is using the power and force of government to punish politically-unfavored groups.

Opponents of the bill have argued that the federal government does not have this power, that the national government shouldn't pass legislation that attacks particular areas of the country, that the FDA is a corrupt and inefficient mechanism for the forces of good, that this bill will be unsuccessful and counter-productive, and that tobacco companies are already doing more on their own to reduce second-hand smoke by producing smokeless tobacco.

These arguments have fallen on gleefully deaf ears, as anti-smoking forces recognize that hope and change are in the air and now is the time to institute rules that tyrannize opponents. The Obama administration recently issued a royal decree declaring strong support for the measure. President Obama himself frequently enjoys cigarettes and likely will find a loophole in any laws that take away his cigarettes or lower their quality.