DO YOU WANT GOVERNMENT RAISING KIDS?

WE WANT you to vote Yes on Proposition 28 because it's better for
babies. Proposition 28 repeals the ``government knows best'' $700
million program that Rob Reiner sold to voters as a ``stop smoking''
measure. Those hundreds of millions of dollars are just seed money for
a $33.6 billion program for mandatory day care.

Cigarettes Cheaper! has spent about $1 million of its Proposition 10
profits to place Proposition 28 on the March ballot. To increase
profits? No, actually Cigarettes Cheaper! will earn less each week if
Proposition 28 passes. The state pays us to collect the tax, so we
make money on Proposition 10. And because we sell cigarettes cheaper
than other stores, higher cigarette prices drive smokers to our stores.

No, we're pushing Proposition 28 because it's the decent thing to
do.

It comes down to our belief that every person is created equal, with
certain unalienable rights, including life, liberty, and the pursuit
of happiness. Proposition 10 commissioners value compliance over
liberty. They prefer government programs to a family's own pursuit of
happiness. To Proposition 28 opponents, ``healthy'' means politically
correct.

Rob Reiner, one of Hollywood's most famous directors, led the $9
million effort to pass Proposition 10. Reiner was appointed chairman
of the California commission that disburses the nearly $700 million
collected annually because of Proposition 10. It's a lot of money and
a lot of power.

Does Reiner have further ambitions? He says, ``I have way more power
now, doing what I'm doing where I am, than I would as one of 100
senators or one of 435 representatives.''

Here's how a $700 million program paid for by a quarter of the state's
adults will grow to be a gigantic $33.6 billion per year: There are
3,378,623 million children under 6 years old in California. That's
called a ``target population.'' Newspaper reports based on estimates
from a Proposition 10 commissioner say it will cost $9,608 per child
per year for day care. Multiply it yourself.

You may say ``Hey, this is for poor children. This is for abused
children.'' You're mistaken. This is for all babies and all children.
As Reiner says, ``Make no mistake. This is the way we change society
from the ground up.''

You should ask yourself: ``What's best for children?'' You might
think, ``$700 million? How could it hurt?'' But if it gives any parent
the idea that the responsibility for caring for a baby goes to the
government, that's bad for kids. If the money is used to let the
politically powerful make decisions for parents, that's bad for kids.
If the money is wasted and used to set up a huge government jobs
scheme, where kids are the inmates, that's bad for kids. If the money
is used to drive private child care out of business, and to destroy
choice, that's bad for kids.

Cigarettes Cheaper! started this effort at the request of its
customers. As retailers, we serve the state's most despised and
persecuted minority, smokers. However, even though our customers are
taxed without representation (because 25 percent of the population
cannot win an election), even though they are subject to the tyranny
of the majority, that's much less important than the effects the vast
Proposition 10 scheme will have on millions of children.

We don't expect the truth of what we say to be self-evident. Some of
you will get hung up on the fact that we sell tobacco products and
you'll miss the bigger picture. Some of you will wait to see who buys
the most television ads. We've said, since we refuse to take money
from Big Tobacco, that we may run a record low budget campaign, so
you'll have to think through the merits of the proposed law for
yourself. Some of you don't trust other people to raise their own
children. Some don't want to do the work of raising their own children.

Proposition 28 isn't a cure-all. It's just better than Proposition 10.
Already 59 bureaucratic commissions have been set up, charged with
dispensing this largess. Mark Friedman, the Proposition 10 director in
Alameda County says, ``It's very exciting, it's the first time in
eight years I've worked at the county where we get such a large amount
of money with so few restrictions.''

Do you want the same high standards as the state's public school
system to replace the role of parents? Do you want Rob Reiner to be
your kid's mom?