Posted on 05/10/2010 4:51:37 AM PDT by mattstat
There is a smoking story making the rounds here in New York. Seems the New York State Legislature has cut funding thirty-percent to its anti-smoking program. These cuts were over a three-year period.
Many other programs and agencies also saw their funding reduced: the State has a large budget deficit.
Among other consequences, the tighter anti-smoking budget forced a scaling back of the free nicotine-patch program.
That’s not my “free”, incidentally. It arose from the fruitful imagination of one Russ Sciandra, who bills himself director of the Center for a Tobacco Free New York, a mysterious not-for-profit.
We must not be too harsh with Mr Sciandra: many people mistakenly use that word for government give-a-ways. Pennies from Heaven isn’t in it.
But we can take exception with Sciandra for this statement: because of the cutbacks “105,000 adults started smoking who otherwise might not have.”
That instantiation of the quote came from the Albany Times Union. It also appeared word-for-word in the New York Post and many other outlets in the state over the past two days.
The quote anchored the story in each of the papers in which it appeared: that is, the first paragraph was, as near as could be discerned, identical in each paper.
Which means, quite sadly, that the story is likely not a story at all, but a press release gathered from a wire service which lazy editors substituted for real news. Press releases, as we all know, are free; reporters cost money.
What is worse is that ...
(Excerpt) Read more at wmbriggs.com ...
Government shrinking a “program?” OH MY!!
Tobacco Control is just like Glowball Warming.
Same play book.
Find an issue, regulate and tax it, fund the bureaucrats working the scare machine....then the government sees all the cash lying around and take it......bureaucrats then fight with bureaucrats for the tax scraps.
Tobacco Control thought they found the well of infinite personal wealth and job security....they’re ticked off because the Government wants it all....It’s too big to share.
So all the people who die from smoking will die from something else...
Yes, we will all now die because we are using the wrong light bulbs....get with the program ;)
How in the world could they know this?
Oh, never mind. It's a number made up by a bunch of liberals - just the Obama's "jobs saved" numbers.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.