Saturday, September 15, 2012

Why ARRA didn’t pull us out of high unemployment

Have you wondered why the "stimulus" didn't stimulate? One tiny example. $200 million went to 22 locations to "implement evidence-based strategies to reduce tobacco use." Like much of ARRA, our money went to programs to change behavior, not to improve the business climate. To support the government employees working on those strategies, in 2011 another $100 million in another program was awarded to float anti-tobacco initiatives. And still we have a smoking president.

Although I think cessation programs are payment to Big Pharma, they are always listed as part of the success in reducing smoking (from 43% in 1964 to 19% in 2010). I must know hundreds of former smokers, heard stories of everything from cold turkey, to oxygen tanks, to miracles from God who took away the desire, but I've yet to hear one about a government paid for cessation program.

Smoking in federal buildings and spaces was outlawed under Clinton in 1997.  Someone big didn’t get the memo. In July 2011 HHS expanded this to any tobacco produce use, including in vehicles and any outdoor spaces.

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