Reader Mail

As much as I enjoy the comments which call me a liar and/or a racist pig, the most interesting response to any of my posts within the last week had to do with the Tavern League's capitulation on the smoking ban legislation. The comment, posted verbatim below, was directed more broadly, to the idea of a smoking ban in general.

We forget who pays for the medical cost of smoking. We do, the taxpayers pay the cost. How? Medicare and Medicaid. As as Family Physician Practicing 26 years in Wausau Wisconsin it is disconcerting to repeatedly deal with the anguish patients and families go thru when their loved one has lung cancer, Heart attacks or damaging strokes. Thes patients don't die right a way. They linger on for many years with the most scientifically advanced medical care in the world. Need I add expensive? Hospital costs, Physician costs, Highly trained nurses, Lab personel, X-ray people, CAT scan operators, MRI specialists, all highly trained and highly educated people that cost money. These patients eventually end up in assisted living and nursing homes. After their personal money runs out(unless they divest themselves 3 or more years before they need nursing home care) Medical assistance pays the bill. We want our individual rights to smoke and damage ourselves prematurely; then the rest of society pays the bill. Medical economists claim that 50% of medical costs in America are the direct and indirect result of smoking. Yes, we human beings have to be baby sat. We are not as wise as we like to think we are. (emphasis, mine) Frank J. Rubino MD Family Practice Wausau Wisconsin 54401

In a nutshell, this is the impetus behind the nanny state. Protecting ourselves from ourselves.

We get the government we deserve. And members of the Tavern League get the leadership they elect. I can't imagine TLW members in Appleton, Oshkosh, Milwaukee and elsewhere are too pleased, however.

Much more on the smoking ban issue here later, but this comment was too good to simply go without highlighting.