[California Democrat Rep. Henry Waxman's] bill wouldn't let the FDA ban nicotine or tobacco outright, but the agency would be able to regulate the contents of tobacco products, make public their ingredients, prohibit flavoring, require much larger warning labels and strictly control or prohibit marketing campaigns, especially those geared toward children.
The Senate would still have to write up its own bill. And the President would still have to sign whatever makes it out of Congress. So it's not a done deal. But still, this news on top of the yesterday's tobacco tax hike.
The increases, which raise the federal cigarette tax from 39 cents a pack to $1.01, applies to all tobacco products. It comes as more than two dozen states, desperate for revenue in a sunken economy, consider boosting their own tobacco taxes this year.
It's enough to make one think that if Government can't cajole, shame, or persuade smokers into quitting then they'll tax and regulate them into quitting.
But our government would never do that.
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