Tax on tobacco can save lives
Florida’s new $1-a-pack cigarette tax has sent just the kind of strong anti-smoking message society needs to hear.
July sales dropped 17 percent compared to June, as the tax kicked in.
Lawmakers hoped the tax would beef up sagging state revenues.
The tax may not live up to its fiscal billing if sales drop enough, but it will still be a bargain if smoking drops, especially among price-sensitive kids.
With health care costs soaring and the nation convulsed by efforts to reform health insurance, healthy changes in living habits are crucial.
Eliminating smoking and obesity would improve our national health and cut costs.
They are matters of personal responsibility, of which we need a lot more.
Direct sanctions like taxes and educational outreach should be effected.
True, a lot of smokers are turning to Georgia or other cheaper sources in reaction to the tax. Let’s hope they grow weary of those efforts and quit, for their own good and everyone else’s as well.
Taxation on fatty foods is a lot less attractive.
It means too much government interference in decisions that are not always wrong, the way smoking is.
But insurance plans should start penalizing obesity.
We’re way past the time for pussy-footing.
