TOBACCO LETTERS

Tobacco bill deserved to go up in smoke

CONGRATULATIONS to Congressional Republicans for shooting down the
bloated-like-a-blimp tobacco bill (Page 1A, June 18). This bogus
legislation had much more to do with Democrats' addiction to big spending
than with smokers' addiction to nicotine.

In preventing Democrats from satisfying their obsessive need for other
people's money, Republicans showed real compassion.

- -- Tom Kearney Jr.
Scotts Valley

I was dismayed at reading the president's comments, when referring to the
demise of the Tobacco Bill: ``The Republicans should stop acting like
politicians and start acting like parents.'' I then realized that there
were two problems with this.

The first is that our government is not there to be our parent. During the
past 40 years, the government has increased its collection of the public's
hard-earned money, and squandered it in protecting us from ourselves. The
men and women of the American Revolution fought so that the government
could serve to secure Americans' general welfare, not be our savior and
create a welfare state.

When there are people struggling in this country and being pushed down by
government bureaucracies, there is no excuse to create another one.

The second is that it is hard to believe the sincerity of a president who
beats up on tobacco, when his own vice president has profited personally
and politically from the growing of this substance.

- -- Mark Cares
Monterey

WHILE I agree with Molly Ivins' column (Perspective, June 21), she is also
missing the fundamental point regarding tobacco. Regardless of what the
politicians do or don't do, tobacco and its related products are probably
going to be with us for a long time.

Trying to enact legislation is fruitless, as was Prohibition.

In other words, it doesn't matter that the politicians once again were
influenced by the money peddlers.

The responsibility for keeping children from smoking rests with the
parents, as does everything else like drugs, alcohol and moral behavior.
The legislatures of this country are never going to replace parents with
hypocritical taxes.

- -- Dick Ribas
Los Gatos

Checked-by: (Joel W. Johnson)