Two bills that would have prohibited smoking in certain situations were killed in the house today.

A bill that would have prohibited smoking within 75 ft. of a hospital was killed in committee with six voting in favor and 9 voting against.

While we’ve talked about the hospital smoking ban before (when it failed to pass committee in the Senate), I’d just like to reiterate the point that keeping people from smoking really isn’t the government’s job. While I don’t want to be exposed to cigarette smoke while entering the hospital to, I don’t know, have a baby or something, I’d rather the hospital make the rules against it than the government.

The other anti-smoking bill that failed today – and this is a doozy – would have made it illegal to smoke in the car if a child is a passenger.

I’m serious.

Despite the fact that my asthma was probably at least partially caused by growing up in a house with a smoking father, I can say that I’d rather have asthma than live under a government that would tell my dad that he can’t smoke in the car with me. What’s next? Curling irons may not be used in homes with children because they can burn themselves! Only raw foods may be served because of the risk of oven fires in homes with children! One may not drink a soda while driving a child to school because it is a distraction and an accident may result, in which the child may be injured!

It certainly pains me to meet a child who smells like an ashtray, as I would have hoped that his/her parents would have sense enough to take their butts (heehee) outside, but, sweet fancy Moses, is this really what we pay taxes for?

Thankfully, the members of the House committee that discussed the bill saw it the same way – it failed to even get a motion for passage, leaving it dead in the water.

Advertisements