Republican and Conservative political analysis and commentary

You want to see the Democratic nanny-state mindset on display in all its glory? Trot on over to The Demo Memo, my leftwing counterpart here in the Know More Media blog network, and read Claire Celsi's post on a proposal in Congress to increase federal cigarette taxes.

Writes Celsi:

In my opinion, the poor have absolutely no business smoking.

And because in her heart she knows she's right, she wants her opinion legislated into law - a "regressive" tobacco tax is a good idea, she says, because it "should convince the poor to quit."

Celsi's rationale for why Big Government should make smoking too expensive for the poor: smoking is bad for you, and bad for the household budget. After all, she quit smoking because it was "pinching my family budget." Well, good for her. She was stupid to start smoking in the first place, but at least she was smart enough to quit. And both decisions were hers to freely make.

But, no, that's not good enough for Celsi. She thinks the poor have absolutely no business smoking, and, therefore, Big Government ought to make it hard for them to do so. Because the poor don't deserve the same level of freedom to choose that middle class folks like her. Er, unless the "freedom to choose" involves killing the unborn. Then the government ought to pay for it.

If Celsi was being truly consistent she wouldn't support raising cigarette taxes to price the poor out of smoking their Marlboros and Virginia Slims. She'd be pushing for a federal subsidy so the poor could more easily exercise their freedom to smoke.

Celsi and the Democrats think freedom is good if you want to kill your unborn child but not if you want to kill yourself slowly by puffing on tobacco. Why? Because there is revenue to be raised by hiking cigarette taxes - revenue that Democrats can then spend. Because Democrats believe they can spend your money better than you can.