[Vision2020] Is The Bush Administration Blowing Smoke?

[Tom Hansen]

>From Bob Schieffer's commentary on today's (July 27, 2008) "Face the 
Nation" -

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Is The Bush Admin. Blowing Smoke?
By Bob Schieffer

First disclosure: I'm a cancer survivor, and have lived for a long time 
with another disease called ulcerative colitis, both of which I probably 
got because of a long-ago, heavy addiction to nicotine. 

So I am delighted the House will vote this week on legislation that for 
the fist time will give the Food and Drug Administration real power to 
regulate tobacco products. I hope it passes. 

For the record, John McCain and Barack Obama, who don't agree on much, 
agree this needs to be done. So does the American Cancer Society, as well 
as the American Heart Association, the American Lung Association, and on 
and on. 

The administration - incredibly, in my opinion - opposes it for a reason 
that would make the Queen of Hearts from "Alice in Wonderland" proud. 

Their reason: that the FDA already has such a huge job monitoring food 
safety that it just doesn't have the resources to take on the additional 
job of regulating tobacco. 

If it did, the administration argues, regulating food and drugs might 
suffer. 

I couldn't be more serious. That really is their main reason. 

By that logic, we shouldn't have asked the military or our intelligence 
agencies to get involved in fighting terrorism after 9/11. For sure, they 
already had plenty to do before Osama bin Laden came along. 

In "Alice," after the Queen of Hearts issued her weird orders, her husband 
the King had a way of undoing them when she wasn't looking. 

Well, maybe Congress can do the same and pass this by veto-proof margins. 

Because every day, 1,000 children in America are learning to smoke, and 
for 20 years now, 400,000 Americans have died each year from tobacco-
related diseases. 

That's no fairy tale. Those are just the facts. 

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Any bets on how Idaho's Rep. Bill Sali will vote?

Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho
 
"We're a town of about 23,000 with 10,000 college students. The college 
students are not very active in local elections (thank goodness!)."

- Dale Courtney (March 28, 2007)


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