Simultaneous sucking and blowing

In the most blatant case of attempting to suck and blow at the same time, the government of Ontario is filing a $50 billion lawsuit against the tobacco industry to recover money the province claims it has been forced to spend on smoking-related illnesses. It’s the kind of government action that’s tailor-made for really stupid people who might not realize that the government has already been paid more than that just in taxes.

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Not that I am opposed to taxes on commodities like cigarettes or beer or lottery tickets, for that matter, as it is one of the few ways to get the poor to pay their fair share of taxes. [Full disclosure: I am a non-smoker] What’s most galling about Ontario’s attempt to sue the tobacco industry is that this is akin to a drug dealer suing the Cali Cartel because all of his customers have died of cocaine overdoses. If the government of Ontario really believes that tobacco is so harmful that its use has incurred extraordinary healthcare costs, then it should be making cigarettes illegal, rather than continuing to collect excise taxes through their sale. But that’s a solution that’s just too complex for L/liberals to grasp, as they are truly hooked on the tax revenue that the sale of tobacco generates. On the one hand they persecute smokers to the point that the only place that’s legal for them to smoke any more is in a dark closet, alone and naked, provided there are no children living anywhere in the neigbourhood. On the other hand the government profits hugely from the sale of tobacco products, on the whole making about 7 times more money than the tobacco industry. But this is likely only the tip of the iceberg, as government gets ever more desperate to find money with which to buy our votes. I can see the province of Ontario suing the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation over the damage caused families (and don’t forget, the children) due to gambling addictions. It’s possible they will sue the Liquor Control Board of Ontario over the healthcare costs driven by alcoholism. Certainly there will be some bright shining star in the government that will discover the healthcare related costs caused by the fast food or firearms industries. Ontario’s Liberal government under Dalton McGuinty has thrown reason, morality or ethics out the window in its never-ending quest to generate new sources of revenue. But then, morality, ethics or reason aren’t something that any government, Liberal or Conservative, is ever overly concerned about, so long # the bucks keep rolling in. Here’s a suggestion for a lawsuit the government could file against school boards: Sue them for the anticipated welfare costs they will incur by graduating kids that can’t read, write, or perform simple mathematics. It’s the perfect lawsuit, which ought to generate lots of new revenue without overly affecting the status quo. And the government of Ontario would have a very strong case, given that it is paying for the educational system with tax dollars and receiving less in return than what it anticipated. While this suggestion seems ridiculous on its face, it’s not any less ridiculous than going after the tobacco industry to recover healthcare costs from smoking-related illnesses. In its claim, the government wants to go back as far as 1955, which is curious, because Ontario didn’t have government health insurance until July, 1966 and then the program was adequately funded through the premiums paid by participants. To say that this lawsuit is a cynical attempt to make political brownie points is a gross understatement. Given that today anyone who smokes in Dalton McGuinty’s Ontario is regarded at the same level as a Klan member or a Jew in 1930s Germany, the government feels perfectly safe in its extreme persecution of smokers. There is something inherently wrong in having the same government that profits from the sale of tobacco products attempt to sue the industry that produces them.