The Anger of Compassion

From whence the threat?

If you are at all effective at managing your time, then you regularly spend some of it at The Light of Reason, where Arthur Silber has provided you with two noteworthy offerings this week. But even Arthur doesn't tell you that they are both part of the same story.

In "Fascism Rising," he reports on Surgeon General Richard Carmona's testimony before Congress, in which the aforementioned bureaucrat supported a ban on all tobacco products, and in "Fire the Wizard--and Give Freedom a Chance," he discusses New Left historian Gabriel Kolko's (well-documented) conclusion that the push for the creation of the Interstate Commerce Commission, the Federal Reserve, and the Federal Trade Commission came largely from the to-be regulated industries themselves, rather than outside activists or concerned government officials.

Arthur quotes from the Washington Post version of the first story, in which Carmona is quoted as saying that he sees "no need for any tobacco products in society." For my part, I see no need for a Surgeon General in the executive branch of a free society's government. What this fascist little fusspot fails to discern is that cigarettes, cigars, plugs, whatever, are not found in "society" but in the hands and mouths of individuals who enjoy them and have chosen to use them.

Which brings me to my point--that this little incident before a Congressional committee is illustrative of the Kolko thesis. You see, the Post left something out of its version. For that, I invite you to read the Reuters version of the same testimony, which concludes:

"[Philip Morris USA] is pushing Congress to give the Food and Drug Administration authority to regulate tobacco and to determine when products can be promoted as reduced-risk.

" 'In the absence of FDA authority in this area, we are forced into making a difficult choice between making claims that haven't been validated by a government agency...and not providing smokers with information that may be helpful to them,' Mike Szymanczk, chairman and chief executive of Philip Morris USA, said in testimony for a separate hearing before the House Government Reform Committee."

Didn't I tell you?

And what the hell does regulating the tobacco industry have to do with government "reform," anyway?