Is Obama responsible for the seizure of our liberties?
Last week, another bill was passed and signed into law that takes more of our freedoms and violates the Constitution of the United States. It was, of course, done for the sake of the children, and in the name of the health of the citizenry. It’s always the case that when your liberty is seized, it is seized for your own good. Such is the condescension of Washington.
The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act will give sweeping new powers over tobacco to the FDA. It will require everyone engaged in manufacturing, preparing, compounding, or processing tobacco to register with the FDA and be subjected to FDA inspections, which is yet another violation of the Fourth Amendment. It violates the First Amendment by allowing the FDA to restrict tobacco advertising in multiple ways, as well as an outright ban on advertising any cigarettes as light, mild or low-tar. The FDA will have the power of pre-market reviews of all new tobacco products, and will impose new user fees, meaning taxes, on manufacturers and importers of tobacco products. It will even regulate the amount of nicotine in cigarettes.
My objections to the bill are not an endorsement of tobacco. As a physician I understand the adverse health effects of this bad habit. And that is exactly how smoking should be treated – as a bad habit and a personal choice. The way to combat poor choices is through education and information. Other than ensuring that tobacco companies do not engage in force or fraud to market their products, the federal government needs to stay out of the health habits of free people. Regulations for children should be at the state level. Unfortunately, government is using its already overly intrusive financial and regulatory roles in healthcare to establish a justifiable interest in intervening in your personal lifestyle choices as well. We all need to anticipate the level of health freedom that will remain once government manages all health care in this country.
Actions in Congress such as this tobacco bill are especially disconcerting after we thought we were beginning to see some progress in drawing down the wrong-headed and failed war on drugs. A majority of Americans now think marijuana should be legal, taxed and regulated, according to a recent Zogby poll and over 70 percent are in favor of allowing medicinal use of marijuana. Bills like this take us down exactly the wrong path. Instead of gaining more freedom with marijuana, we are moving closer to prohibiting tobacco. Our prisons are already bursting with non-violent drug offenders. How long will it be before a black market in tobacco fills the prisons with non-violent cigarette smokers?
Stop Obama B4 it's 2 L8
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It's all good
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If you think that's bad.... S. 787 obliterates any respect for private property rights by giving total control and unchecked regulation of all waters of the U.S. to the federal government. By removing the one word “navigable,” from the Clean Water Act, S. 787 will subject every landowner, business, county, and city to obtain a permit to use their water, subjecting them to unconstitutional regulation and discretionary jurisdiction of the Army Corp of Engineers or the Environmental Protection Agency bureaucrats. Normal farming activities will be subject to citizen-suit provisions of the Clean Water Act, which will lead to expensive litigation and regulation. Read the full text of the bill here: http://www.opencongress.org/bill/ 157 days ago | Tagged As: Stop Obama B4 it's 2 L8
It's from Dr Paul's website: You'll find more of his posts here: http://www.house.gov/apps/blog/tx14_ 151 days ago | Tagged As: Stop Obama B4 it's 2 L8
But wait.... there's more.... 157 days ago | Tagged As: Stop Obama B4 it's 2 L8
For the youtube video, I enjoyed the cat walking across the screen lol. And very informative. Bad act. For the ABC news report, this is horrible. It's basically brain washing because the American public is really dumb as it is (no offense to us, but we are not so hot when it comes to education) and there will be no opposition! How can you possibly do that? That just goes to show how shaky this all is. If universal health care was 100% perfect for this country, I'm SURE they would have the opposing side on because it would be a completely weak argument anyway! Damn that ABC... 155 days ago | Tagged As: Stop Obama B4 it's 2 L8
He's making me think twice about my dream occupation of becoming a doctor. I really really love anatomy and I would LOVE to become a doctor and save some lives. :) But I also want to be able to have a job that I can live comfortably off of an raise a family on. The way he's revamping our health care system, I don't see how that's possible. I know this doesn't have too much to do with "the seizure of our liberties", but I had to say this somewhere. :( 157 days ago | Tagged As: Stop Obama B4 it's 2 L8
Data can only prove the past and estimate the future. Besides, most people in the world DO make decisions based on fear mongering. Example: some people choose not to fly to their destinations because of terrorism and because of all of the plane crashes in the news, which is every single plane crash that gets reported. Instead they decide to drive to their destination, even though flying is statistically safer and driving tends to stress people out. 155 days ago | Tagged As: Stop Obama B4 it's 2 L8
"socialized healthcare?" What's that? It sounds like universal healthcare, but with a fearmongering twist. Has Obama said he wants to use this? Please start supporting the terms you're throwing out, buddy. The crazy things that you are worried about aren't going to happen. Yes, brand new, American made, long lasting, and environmentally sound electric cars are coming. What's wrong with that? What's wrong with mpg standards? We have smog emmission standards, and other environmental standards. They protect the very lovely state you live in. That's how progress goes. You identify a problem, and you fix it. If you don't believe in global warming, that's your problem, and don't want to hear about it. Right now it widely accepted by the people who know WTF they are talking about, so deal. As for health care, it needs to be overhauled. They're using the democratic process tro figure out how best to do that. Or would you like to continue to pay high prices for sub par treatment? 156 days ago | Tagged As: It's all good
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I honestly don't think smoking should be a choice. There is no positive to smoking. There is a positive to the purchase of cigarettes and the wonderful things those taxes and surcharges support. However, smoking is silly and harms not only the smoker but the innocent people around them. I agree that banning cigarettes outright would cause a black market. So I see this as a positive step towards weaning humans off of cigarettes so that there will eventually not be a soul out there addicted and or wanting to smoke. That is the cure, the solution and should be your goal as a physician. 157 days ago | Tagged As: It's all good
I agree, and would only add that smoking hurts society by causing more expenses in medical costs, meaning that people have to pay more for health insurance because of smokers. Putting more regulations on the tobacco industry is good for everyone, except for the tobacco industry, but if they're willing to lie and mislead the public about the dangers of smoking then why should we really care about their well being? 156 days ago | Tagged As: It's all good
Hi P.A....you're right when you say that it would set up a black market but they've already set that up with their never ending taxes they said would reduce the amount of smokers in this country. I am a smoker and have been for over 45 years and all I see is an opportunity to scam them at their own level. I but rolling tobacco and roll my own which puts me in the $8.50 per carton category. You can't beat that with a stick in today's over-taxed market! I won't give them a penny more than what I pay...not one red cent so they can fill their coffers with tax money that doesn't help the situation one iota. If any smoker has ever received information from the US government directing them to things that may help them quit I'd be truly amazed. That's what they should be using at least part of the money for but it's in their best interests to keep the tax ball rolling at our expense. I can only wonder what they'd do if all of America stopped smoking all at once. They'd all have coronaries while hurriedly trying to calculate what other item that's "bad" for us to tax us for. It's truly outrageous! 156 days ago | Tagged As: It's all good
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