Per Unstable Isotope, Sen. Bonini says it’s hypocritical to tell people not to smoke yet raise money by taxes. He misses the point. I shall relay a scene from the West Wing.
CJ Craig, the White House press secretary is talking to an undersecretary of state on Air Force One about free trade with China. The undersecretary says we know the Chinese will have dissidents making sneakers whether we sell them cheeseburgers or not, so why not sell them cheeseburgers. The point is that we know people are going to smoke whether we tell them to stop or not, so why not tax them, which will have the affect of raising money for the state and the added affect of perhaps getting people to stop smoking.