Posted on 06/11/2009 1:26:58 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Years in the Making, Senate Votes to Give FDA Power to Regulate Tobacco
Times have changed now that even tobacco states have smoking bans. Today, after two weeks of wrangling and a decade of considering the change, the U.S. Senate endorsed increased regulation of tobacco.
Senators voted 79-17 to regulate tobacco in the same way the government regulates everything else you put in your body -- from Froot Loops to aspirin.
Watch "World News With Charles Gibson" tonight at 6:30 ET for the full report.
At Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, organization president Matthew L. Myers called the vote "a truly historic victory" and "the strongest action Congress has ever taken to reduce tobacco use."
"Forty-five years after the first U.S. Surgeon General's report linking cigarette smoking to lung cancer, the most deadly product sold in America will no longer be the least-regulated product sold in America," Myers said in a statement.
The bill would give the federal government the power to regulate cigarette ingredients, to ban the marketing of "light cigarettes" and to require graphic warning labels.
It's a huge move that's been a long time coming.
"We have tried for ten years and we have failed," said Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., in a speech on the Senate floor earlier this month when the Senate voted to break a filibuster and consider the legislation. "Think what kind of a difference we could have made. How many lives we would have saved if we passed this ten years ago."
The House already passed its version of the bill in April, so it will go the president as soon as the chambers iron out the differences.
Unlike former President Bush, who suggested he'd veto legislation to give the FDA authority over tobacco, President Obama has said he supports it.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
“More American jobs pored down the drain. :(More American jobs pored down the drain. :(”
Don’t worry, I’m sure tobacco farmers and those employed by the industry will be able to find jobs making wind turbines and electric cars-but those will go to the union hacks. Maybe they can grow pot for the liberal kiddies in the Ivy League, somewhere out there, the next BHO is waiting to take his first bong hit.
The govt. already passed some bill with regard to cigs. There are three letters near the bar code, I believe, which are FSC.
The clerk at the store said the cig. makers were having to make them burn in a different way.
Waxman...LOL! Congrats on avoiding addictions. I’ve kicked alcohol (day by day) and am working on nicotine.
Drago doesn’t understand that the government doesn’t have any business nannying citizens if those citizens choose to poison themselves. He may endorse education, intervention or door-to-door testimony so long as it’s on his or a non-government group’s dime.
I recall a little man from Austria who’s anti-smoking campaign developed into a literal horror show that exterminated the retarded, the malformed and the non-”Aryan”. We do not need to encourage the current office-holder down the fascist path...he’s heading there fast enough on his own power.
“This bill sucks as do smokers........”
Just another govt intrusion on personal choice.
You have strange tagline for one who apparently does not mind mining your neighbors wallet.
Well rest assured when they are done with the smokers they will be coming for your wallet.
I am sure that govy will find some choice to tax you on also.
It’s all very logical. If the govt is paying for medical, then they can enforce how you live. No cigs, no fat foods, must wear helmets in cars, no dangerous sports, and ANY OTHER DANGEROUS THING YOU CAN NAME that might impact on THEIR health care system costs. You can see this one coming down the track.
I wonder when the rest of America will realize that they have become slaves
no cars
He believes in freedom of HATESPEECH.
There was overwhelming support from BOTH parties. Only 17 senators said no! That’s an incredible bipartisan vote.
Finally most conservatives and liberals can agree on something: smoking is a poisonous deadly habit—just as the companies are coming out with a candied version of chewing tobacco. God forbid they are actually banned from introducing this poison in yet another seductive form to get kids hooked. To those that think this is about individual freedoms, who pays for 90 per cent of the oxygen bottle refills? And how free is a person tethered to an oxygen bottle in a wheelchair? For one day, gubmint done some good.
That makes me feel so much better...
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