Senate expected to pass statewide smoking bill
Madison - The state Senate is expected to pass legislation today that would bar communities from enforcing local restaurant smoking bans, wiping out nearly two dozen municipal and county ordinances around the state. The Assembly will also be in session, and is expected to approve new caps on pain and suffering awards to victims of medical malpractice.The statewide smoking measure narrowly passed the Assembly in June and would prohibit smoking in restaurants that seat more than 50 people, but it would allow smoking anywhere in restaurants smaller than that. The measure would also allow smoking in most restaurant bars and in separate rooms in restaurants, such as banquet halls, as long as those rooms have different ventilation systems.Bowling centers would also be excluded from the smoking ordinance if they meet certain standards, which include having smoke-free areas.Gov. Jim Doyle has indicated he likely would veto the measure.
This story shows once again that the Left only wants choice when it comes to killing babies.
Why can't an owner of a buisness decide what happens in his building?
If he wants smoking to happen, why can't he? Is smoking illegal? Is the owner allowing illegal activity to happen in his place of buisness.....so why is Democrat Gov. Jim Doyle going to veto this bill? This bill would make all the smoking bans null and void...City councils would no longer be able to tell buisness owners what they can do with their buisness....
Once again Republicans are the ones offering choice.
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19 comments:
Oh wait......now you are a libertarian!!!:-) Screw these people. We have a smoking ban in every single building(homes excluded) in this town and 10 feet from a door. Shouldn't the person that owns the business be able to make that decision. That big pile of dead cocktail waitresses over there in the corner is getting pretty smelly though.(joke for those of you with no sense of humor).
By the way..I live just 10s of miles from west texas and it is certainly NOT by anyones stretch of the imagination anything approaching liberal.
this is definately a slipperly sloap...what are they going to say we can't do next???
Did you know that smoking is a health hazard? It stinks, too. Should we also allow the business owner to allow his kitchen to be dirty, have rodents and cockroaches, rotting food, and let his employees leave the bathroom without washing their hands? I mean it's a free world, right?
Or does the government have a legitimate duty to protect the health of the public?
More bullshit. Just put the rules up and let people run things their way. I dont get how anyone can think they should be able to say what we can or cant do.
Jim...that arguement was crap...
I don't think people WANT to eat rotten food...many still do WANT to smoke, and if the owner of the buisness wants to let them, they should be able too..
Jim, we , as you might have guessed had quite a debate on this here. I have heard your arguement and it makes sense. I think a walled section with a door or something while onerous would be reasonable. We don't even have exceptions for bars! Not one place, nowhere. To basically outlaw it takes even more of our freedom of choice away, in my book. If non smoking places are popular more places will become non smoking.
So there should be no laws which protect the public health or interest? We should let patrons if they want to eat at a restaurant that has a filthy kitchen? It's their choice to eat there if they want. It's the owners choice to run that kind of establishment, right? We should abolish the public health department and fire all health inpectors.
You may disagree with this position, but it is not illigitimate and not crap.
Big GOV determines the health regs, Jim. Fact is, left to supply and demand.....the citizens make the choices. No one wants to eat filthy food, and those businesses soon go 'out of business'. Supply and Demand, aka common sense. If smokers want to smoke while out and about, let them. They pay more than their fair share for tobacco taxes. If nonsmokers want establishments to be in that are smoke free, fine, they don't have to go to the places that allow smokers...all per shopkeepers choice whether or not to allow smokers. Supply and Demand will decide that. WHAT I WANT TO KNOW IS WHEN IN THE HELL ARE WE GOING TO START DOUBLING THE TAXES FAT PEOPLE PUT ON THE ECONOMY?! FAT PEOPLE CAUSE THE GOV HEALTHCARE COSTS TO GO UP FAR MORE THAN SMOKERS DO! I KNOW THIS FOR A FACT! I AM A HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONAL. YET OUR GOV DOES NOT INSIST THAT FAT PEOPLE PAY EXTRA TAXES FOR BEING FAT! FAT PEOPLE CREATE MORE WORKER COMP CLAIMS THAN NORMAL WEIGHT PEOPLE DO! THE AMOUNT OF MONEY HEALTHCARE ORGS WRITE OFF EVERY YEAR FOR FAT RELATED HEALTH ISSUES FAR EXCEEDS THE AMOUNT OF MONEY WRITTEN OFF FOR SMOKING RELATED ILLNESSES! FAT PEOPLE ARE A DRAIN ON THE ECONOMY! INCREASE TAXES ON FAT PEOPLE, AND STOP THEM FROM EATING HIGH CALORIE FOODS IN PUBLIC RESTAURANTS! THERE SHOULD BE A BAN ON FAT PEOPLE BEING ALLOWED TO PIG OUT IN PUBLIC RESTAURANTS BECAUSE IT IS A NATIONAL HEALTH HAZARD THAT CREATES THE MAJORITY OF THE DRAIN ON OUR HEALTHCARE SYSTEMS! EXTRA TAXES SHOULD BE IMPOSED ON ALL FAT PEOPLE BUYING FOOD. SCALES ARE INEXPENSIVE, EVEN THE ONES THAT FIGURE IN IDEAL BODY WEIGHTS ARE CHEAP NOW. SINCE FAT PEOPLE ARE SUCH A NATIONAL HEALTH HAZARD, ALL SUPERMARKETS SHOULD BE REQUIRED TO HAVE IDEAL BODY WEIGHT SCALES, AND EVERYONE THAT IS OVER 20% OF THEIR IDW, SHOULD HAVE TO PAY EXTRA TAXES ON THEIR FOOD! THEY ARE DRAINING THE ECONOMY. OBESITY IS A NATIONAL HEALTH CRISIS! SAME AS SMOKING! REGULATE AND RULE BOTH HEALTH HAZARDS WITH AN IRON FIST!
Do you get the gist of how silly it is to support, and even insist that the government protect through regulations, everyone from problematic health risks? And before you say that obesity does not create 'second hand', or passive health risks, as smoking does...stop right there. All studies show that overeating is a learned behavior..brought about from watching others participate in unhealthy food choices, just like smoking.... others can be victimized just by being in the same vicinity as an obese person indulging ......liberalism..aka communism. Control every damn thing there is...no freedom will be left.
Yes, people will stop going into a restaurant if people come out sick. The market will decide. So why do we have health inpectors, anyway?
Watching a "fat" person eat is as unhealthy as breathing in someone's cigarette smoke. Brilliant analysis!
You completely missed the point Jim. Obesity is a very serious naional health hazard. It is responsible for more on the job injuries, it is responsible for more hospital admissions than smoking is. Why not fine obese persons, in the form of taxes on their food? Smokers pay large taxes on each pack of cigarettes, and the reason given for this is that smoking causes health problems, and thus insurance companies, including Medicare absorb the extra costs due to smoking related diseases. Well Jim obesity causes an even bigger strain on insurance companies. Hypertension, CVA's, MI's, a multitude of vascular problems, bone problems (the need for total knee replacements is largely due to obesity), back problems, GI disorders, the list of health problems which can be definitively linked to obesity goes on and on. Just think about it...make the analogy. Punish smokers for straining the economy, well why not punish fat people for the economic strain their weakness toward food creates? And, yes watching fat people overindulge is just as detrimental to health as breathing second hand smoke. Overeating is in part a learned behavior. Children who have at least one obese parent are very likely to become obese also. The other part is genetics. Here again, these obese parents are jeopardizing future generations. I have already cited the multitude of health problems that are directly a result of obesity. Consider how much rehab time is necessary for all of the above health disorders I mentioned. It is astronomical in terms of health care costs. So yes, Jim it is a good analogy. You just aren't educated enough to see it.
great point steph...
why don't we start taxing fat foods, if we are to go with the Left's way of thinking. We tax cigs because they are bad for you, why not Big Macs?
And once again, we have made the decision to let smoking be legal...we do not as a society say it is okay to have dirty restaurants and we have made the decision that they should not serve rotten food...that is such a far stretch.
Jim, why don't you support to make smoking illegal?
And alcohol too?
Read your history. It's been tried (alcohol). Wouldn't work with tobacco either.
The issue is not the substance, it's the time and place.
Fat people in a restaurant do not directly affect the health of others in the restaurant. Cigarette smoking does.
I agree with the personal freedom people here. I understand people worry about they and their childrens health too which is why I suggested a separate room for smokers and bars as a smoking place in its self unless the owner chooses differently.
Jim you completely ignored the main topic I presented, which is that of why excessive taxes are imposed upon smokers, using the excuse that it is because of the financial burden that smoking causes to insurance companies, for the most part, government insurance programs. However, it is an established fact that obesity, causes far more economic devastation to government insurance programs. Oddly there are no extra taxes imposed upon people who use overeating as their means to cope, as there are tax punishments to smokers who use tobacco as their means to cope. And the extra costs to insurance companies from obese people makes the costs from smokers appear miniscule. Why aren't liberals demanding that irresponsible overeaters be punished through taxation for their abusive substance of choice (food), which is creating astronomical health insurance rates for the rest of USA citizens? If we punish smokers, and alcohol drinkers, we should punish obese people who abuse food to the extent that it is callous disregard for what financial burdens, in the form of outrageous health insurance costs they are placing on the more physically fit, conscientious members of society.
Addressing your claim that watching people overeating in restaurants does not directly affect the health of others:
While one may not become inclined to obesity just from infrequently observing one or two obese persons overeating at restaurants a couple times a month, that sort of infrequency of observation is not usual. When considering the learned behavior of overeating, one must consider that the majority of Americans are obese, and do participate in frequent public overeating through fast food restaurants, and chain restaurants in shopping malls. Given the fact that overeating is a learned behavior, and most Americans are obese, and most Americans do frequent chain restaurants more than a couple times a month, it is obvious that generations are learning more and more bad eating habits from others at these public places. This is especially true of our adolescent population, many of these students frequent fast food chains two or three times a day. Each year the number of obese Americans rises. The situation is getting worse every year. And the more our children witness reckless overindulgence of adult appetites, the more likely it will be that they will engage in similar overeating behaviors. This insures that through observing the obese overindulge in food in public places, generations to come will also participate in these same overeating tendencies. As long as we make overeating socially acceptable to the point that we allow it to be grossly displayed in public, thus creating a stamp of approval for this behavior, it ensures that obesity will continue to grow as a national health crisis. Therefore, liberals clamiing to be advocates of healthy lifestyles should be appalled at the reckless disregard obese people are showing for the welfare of our society, and should be advocating punishments for gluttony. They are not doing this at all....HMMMMM.
This just goes to show you Jim that the freedom of choice for personal lifestyles should be foremost, because we can try to protect everyone and everything from unhealthy choices, but all that will accomplish is a severely restricted and regulated society, aka communism.
I worked as an ICU nurse, and part of my decision to stop that specialty and start working ER, was that the severity of obesity related admissions, and the frequency of these repeat admissions (aka 'frequent flyers'), and the amount of intensive care they would need just because they abused food, was sickening. None had any remorse for their overindulgences. (At least most smokers did feel remorse and accept responsibility for putting themselves in the place.) They would have friends and family sneak junk food in to them, as soon as they could take food by mouth. It didn't matter to them that they had just been weaned off a ventilator, and should be thankful their large bodies were alive. All that mattered to them was how to get more junk food. Sometimes these people would be in the ICU for 8 months, then be transferred to another floor and spend another 6 to 8 weeks there before being discharged to home, where they would quickly resume overeating and end up as an ICU admission within a couple of months, and repeat the cycle ad nauseum. Frequent flyers...most of them are not the smokers. Most of them are the obese, with obesity related health problems. At least working in the ER, one only has to put up with that behavior for a short time, not months of trying to care for someone who is so obsessed with food that they can't even reach their own butt to wipe it. Most have expected their children to do things like wipe their butts for them. Yes children, young adolescents and teenagers. And yep, watching over the years, their kids also end up morbidly obese. So do not try to tell me that observing the self destructive patterns and rationalizations of the obese is not as dangerous to health as breathing second hand smoke. The health problems caused by obesity are much more serious than those caused by smoking, or breathing second hand smoke, and they are much more prevalent. And they are passed on to others.
I would rather take care of drunks and drug addicts, than obese people, simply because the obese generally accept no responsibility for their actions, because society does not punish them. Liberals are too afraid to touch that issue. Hypocrisy at it's finest = liberalism.
It's all about choice, and fat people have the choice, so should smokers. So should business owners who want to decide whether or not their establishments should be nonsmoking or smoking.
Government should not mess with these choices. There isn't any reasonable justification for it. If you don't want to go to a place that allows smokers, than don't go. Go to a place that doesn't. For now we can't avoid the ill effects the obese place on our society. And just FYI Jim, FAT people really STINK too. This is primarily due to poor circulation and accumulation of waste products in the tissues. It smells really bad. PU! ROFLMAO!
the freedom of choice for personal lifestyles should be foremost, because we can try to protect everyone and everything from unhealthy choices, but all that will accomplish is a severely restricted and regulated society, aka communism.
Actually I would say fascism but other than that I agree completely. As a matter of fact I am willing to bet I would take this much farther than you would! :-)....This is the kind of thinking that I personally associtate with liberal thought. Let people do what they want. What ever you choose to call it I am for it.
Interesting concepts, SR. How do propose taxing "fat" people without taxing everybody else?
Isn't it likely that most obese children pick up their habits at home and not in a restaurant?
Maybe you should go to Darfur, SR. If you can't find it in your heart to help "fat" people here, maybe you can help the starving there. Nice to know we have such compassionate hospital staff.
You're just too damn funny, Jim. OK, your hypocrisy is blatant now. Essentially what you're saying, by criticizing me as not being compassionate, is that people SHOULD be, or are OBLIGATED to be compassionate to FAT PEOPLE, BUT NOT to SMOKERS! Hmmm..... faulty hypocritical logic, Jim. Both are health crises, both largely initially brought about by industry giants that promote bad health habits in order to enhance their sales.
And you are wrong, dead wrong about eating habits being mostly learned at home. I mentioned before in previous posts, what some of these circumstances are. When you factor in advertising, designed to encourage unhealthy eating habits, such as McDonald's "You deserve a break today", etc. ad nauseum, the why's about why obesity is a health crises far surpassing the smoker health crises are obvious.
But you did just help to prove my point that the reason many obese people do not accept responsibility for their condition is that society hasn't punished them for their detrimental habits, as they do smokers. (But it is coming soon.) You clearly think that we are obligated to feel sorry for fat people, but condemn smokers. Strange logic, Jim.
As far as taxing the obese for their irresponsible habits, I stated a couple of different ways this can be done in previous posts. Also, we can tax the hell out of fast food businesses, just like we have done to the cigarette companies. In case you didn't know there are already lawsuits pending against McDonald's and Burger King, claiming that the advertising got them hooked on eating too much of their fatty foods, and that is why they had heart attacks, strokes, etc. and ended up invalids. "Passing The Buck", a favorite liberal American pastime.
And I am compassionate, I strive to encourage people to take more responsibility for their own health problems though, instead of claiming they are 'victims'. Most health problems, especially cancer, can be directly tracked to either psychological and or lifestyle problems.
What?! No sarcastic retort from Jim?! Of course I don't believe in excessively taxing McDonald's or Burger King, etc. I believe in freedom of choice. And I believe others should accept personal responsibility for their choices, not get into the blaming game. Flip Wilson used to say: "the devil made me do it". Now it seems that too many folks identify the devil as anything that makes them sick, poor, fat...etc., ad nauseum. Sue Happiness.
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