Taxing Cigarettes. Dr. Kelly Brownell, director of the Yale University Center for Eating and Wieght Disorders, has declared that fat people's health problems have cost Americans so much money that the government needs to tax high-fat foods and control fast-food advertising. Dr. Brownell has stated that to him, there is no difference between Ronald Mc Donald and Jo Camel because they both seduce children into unhealthy lifesyles. This new tax has been dubbed the "Twinkie Tax". If the thought of paying additional taxes on the food you enjoy offends you , think of how smokers feel.
Lawmakers in Washingtom are attacking smokers with a proposed tax increase disguised in the rhetoric of fighting teen smoking. The McCain bill imposes a half-trillion-dollar tax increase on adults who are exercising their freedom of choice when buying a legal product; 98 percent of cigarettes sold are smoked by adults. This oppressive tax will be used to create 17 new beueaucracies plus new federal spending on programs that have nothing to do with teenage smoking.
Congress is no substitute for parents. If parents can't or won't try to stop their teenagers from smoking, what makes Congress think that a tax on adult smokers will change teenage behavior? A recent report from the Centers for Disease Control shows teenage smoking has increased despite years of massive anti-smoking campaigns. This should only surprise people who have never been a teen or tried to raise one.
I am not a smoker, but I believe there must be a limit to how far our government can go to protect us from ourselves. Perhaps we should levy a special tax on the manufacturers of TV remotes--after all, they have led to a generation of couch potatoes.
Regardless of your beliefs as they relate to the use of tabacco products, you should oppose the McCain Bill. It is wrong for our government to infringe on the rights of individuals.

----GAYLA HICKS
General Manager
Welcome Smokers, Inc.
Wichita, KS