Send the Carpetbaggers Home: Vote Yes on 50

(SALEM, Ore.) - What was it Deep Throat said during the Watergate fiasco? "Follow the money."

When we do so today in the Measure 50 debate what do we find? We find the anti-50 side has shattered all records for spending... over $10 million and still going strong... 99.999% of which comes from three out of state tobacco companies.

Big Tobacco, one of the greatest liars of the modern age, is pulling out all the stops in their desperate attempt to derail Measure 50, the Healthy Kids initiative.

To most this is a no-brainer. Raise taxes on tobacco, a known killer and health risk, to fund health care for kids. The ignorance is what is truly palpable however. I lost track of how many folks spew the ignorant whine that if the tax decreases smoking it will reduce the revenue from the tax and make the project non-viable. This ignores a few facts. If the tax were to cover every penny that smoking costs the health care industry etc it would be over $11 a pack. So we are adding around 85 cents a pack to bring the total; to just a hair over $2 a pack. So let's say the tax causes a million less packs to be sold. That means $2 million less in revenue from the tax BUT $11 MILLION LESS EXPENSE to the health care infrastructure.

And couldn't $2 million of that $9 million in savings be put back into the Healthy Kids initiative, leaving $7 in reduced health care costs that can lower insurance rates and medical costs, fund additional services or some combination of these or other things?

Getting people to quit smoking tobacco is NEVER a bad thing. For society as well as the individual it is always a positive. The smokers might not like to see it that way, but it is.

You have the right to smoke if you are 16 or older. No one is changing that. But it still does not change the fact that it is a stupid thing to do. And I quit a 3-and-a-half pack a day habit in 1985 so I am not just some anti-smoking Nazi. It was stupid then and it is even more stupid now with all the information, costs and inconveniences involved.

But you do NOT have the right to just foist all these incredibly high costs of your chosen vice onto everyone else. Why should the general public subsidize the majority of that $11+ per pack cost associated with your personal habit, especially when doing so means less of the health care pie is available to kids needing health care?

The argument in the ads is we should not tax a few to benefit others. The truth is we should not tax everyone to benefit the stupid personal health choices of a few. But that is the current standard, unfortunately, but Measure 50 balances it out just a little bit. Nowhere near how much it should, but a lot better than it does currently.

One of the lamest arguments provided by Big Tobacco's well funded propaganda campaign is it is wrong to modify the Constitution of Oregon.

Who the heck do these tools think they are kidding? This is Oregon. We mess with the Constitution all the time. When was the last 4 year period where there was not at least one Constitutional amendment on the ballot? Puh-LEEZE! And we do not put tax issues into the Constitution? SINCE WHEN?

Basically the argument is too ludicrous for mere words to describe in its full grandeur.

The last argument by the desperate liars of the Big Tobacco propaganda machine is that there are kids who already qualify for the Oregon Health Plan but are not enrolled. While this is true, it is not an indictment against the OHP nor Measure 50. No one is REQUIRED to enroll. It is voluntary. Measure 50 would allow tens of thousands of kids to enroll who CANNOT enroll currently. Will some still not be enrolled? Probably. But that is the decision of the parents.

Many who qualify do not apply because of the way the system works. I know a person who could qualify, for example, for job placement assistance. But he will not do it. Why? Because not only are the jobs provided bottom of the barrel types with no future but the program requires you to attend meetings, during work hours, and these employers are not interested in giving the participants the time off, so either you get disqualified for your food stamps because you missed the meetings or you get disqualified because you got fired.

It is a no win situation and whether they are right or wrong many people feel the same way about the Oregon Health Plan. And this is just one big reason for the lack of enrollment of many who already qualify.

But the most telling reason to vote YES on 50 is because out of state Big Tobacco seems to think they can come into our state like carpetbaggers in the post-Civil War South and buy elections in Oregon for their benefit and against the interests of Oregonians.

Rarely can you do one right thing for so many right reasons, Do not miss the opportunity now.

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Rick Bailey October 22, 2007 9:29 am (Pacific time)

When my wife and I were four pack a day smokers, our kids were sick with upper respiratory colds year around. When we quit smoking in 1999, and our home became a normal, healthy place to live and breathe clean air, (not to mention getting rid of the STINKY STENCH that cigarettes create) our kids didn't have those colds anymore, they get sick maybe once a year. Now that we've given them a safe home to breathe in, they are healthy kids. I can literally bring myself to tears when I think of my kids being "FORCED" to breathe my stenchy cigarette smoke. Anybody that claims second hand cigarette smoke doesn't make others sick is sick them selves. I saw my children's health change right before my eyes when our smoking stopped. We will definitely be voting YES on measure 50 for the sake of our kids!

Neal Feldman October 21, 2007 11:48 pm (Pacific time)

Steve - sorry but it is those in denial of the risks of seciond hand smoke who deal in junk science. All the bartenders and waitresses who never smoked yet worked in places where the air was blue and got lung cancer or throat cancer or emphysema or tuberculosis etc. Spouses and kids of smokers, same thing. I'm not supporting bans and certainly in your own home you should be able to do pretty much whatever you want that harms no one but yourself. But if you live with nonsmokers you really should take it outside for their sakes. But outright bans do nothing useful. Limitations for the health benefits of others are justified however. Ah well...

Steve Hartwell October 21, 2007 6:24 pm (Pacific time)

I hate Big Tobacc too. IMHO they care as much about smokers as do anti-smokers. Talk about follow-the-money. Anti-smokers get theirs either from smokers' taxes, or, from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation which owns shares in NicoDerm, so it's obvious why they are supporting anti-smoking. Toronto is 100 % anti-smoking everywhere. No smoking on Shopping Mall Parking Lots. Seniors are forced out of their homes even in coldest February for a puff and some are freezing to death. Psychiatric Hospital patients are forced on to neighbouring properties un-attended. Even War Vets no longer have any place to go. Now the anti-smokers are demanding bans on smoking in one's own car, multi and single dwelling homes and even backyards. I was recently chased along the city highway by a car of recklessly driving teenagers screaming "CANCER STICK MURDERER", like a Jew being chased by Hitler Youth. Which is all the more bizarre because their car exhales the equivalent per day of 11,000 tobacco smokers ! It's Cars that need banning Not tobacco smokers. Anti-smoking is a quickening slippery slope from hatred of second hand smoke, which is Not a Statistically Significant Health Risk, to Hatred of smokers. Anti-Smokers are teaching kids to hate smokers and 'anything goes'. I truly fear 'what next' will mean smokers' ghettos and drive-by shootings of smokers. And for what ? Junk Science ! Second Hand Smoke is NOT a Health Risk to Others. Many doctors and scientists say so, but, are not allowed to be heard. This is not just about tobacco smoke. Junk Science-for-a-Buck has taken over the world ! Stop it now - or - soon see a lot worse than Hitler Youth chasing after smokers on the highways and streets. One day they'll be chasing you too. www.reducedriskcigarettes.ca

Neal Feldman October 21, 2007 12:57 am (Pacific time)

Janet - that is why we watch the govt and why the allocations in m50 are pretty specific. But like I said , until the tax on tobacco is $11 a pack smokers have no basis to gripe for until then the costs of their habit are being subsidized. Ah well...

Janet October 20, 2007 11:26 pm (Pacific time)

What is ignorant is that the money raised by these types of campaigns never seems to get to where it is supposed to go. Many states have done this and then later the money is not allocated where it was intended. Ignorance is not exploring all aspects of the situation. Many states have abused these type of tobacco taxes. We always need to think twice before raising any tax....it effects us all.

Neal Feldman October 20, 2007 8:16 pm (Pacific time)

Did I call it or what? Anonymous to answer your question please be kind enough to actually READ the article. Your answer is spelled out in there quite clearly. Thank you for playing, here is the home game. Ah well...

Anonymous October 20, 2007 7:29 pm (Pacific time)

What happens when everyone quits smoking because tobacco prices are to high where is the money for measure 50 going to come from? Not to mention more and more anti smoking laws it might not even be legal to smoke in the near future again where is the money from measure 50 going to come from?

bamboozler October 20, 2007 5:02 pm (Pacific time)

Same story; heavy smoker over 40 years, quit cold turkey. (I got so mad at the idea that I was being used by the tobacco industry that way, that I HAD to quit!) But that has nothing to do with why I would vote NO if I were to vote. M37 was a quickly sold band-aid for a systemic problem and I think this is too. Besides no is easier to spell than yes. dp

rjerryc October 20, 2007 4:10 pm (Pacific time)

Well written. Well researched. Too bad so many voters don't research anything before voting for or against it. In the case of Measure 50, your I.Q. could be less than 50 and you could still see the reason for voting yes. All the arguments against this measure come from tobacco interests and from smokers. Like the author, I used to smoke - 2 to 3 packs a day was my norm. Good old unfiltered Chesterfield Kings! I quit 1985 also. Yes, I was addicted but I decided to quit and pulled all my strength and fortitude together and quit - cold turkey. I just can't get any sympathy for anyone who "can't quit" because of the addicitve power of tobacco. If you are that weak willed, pay a visit to the Marion Street Bridge and help clean out the gene pool. Vote YES on 50 for your own health and the health of others.

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Send the Carpetbaggers Home: Vote Yes on 50

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