Bad News for Dems - Smoking Rates Have Stalled

How are the Democrats going to fund all their children's health care programs if more people don't start smoking?

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Nearly 21 percent of Americans smoke, a number that has been stalled since 2004, federal researchers reported on Thursday in a study they said means governments must spend more to persuade people to kick the habit.

More than 45 million Americans smoked in 2006, or 20.8 percent of the population, 80 percent of them daily smokers, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported.

The CDC said the numbers have not changed since 2004, which suggests that smoking prevention efforts have "stalled."

"It is completely commensurate with the stall in resources that been going into tobacco control," Dr. Matt McKenna, who directs CDC's Office on Smoking and Health, said in a telephone interview.

This is a classic case of two separate parts of government hoping for two different outcomes. The CDC guy wants more money to encourage people to stop smoking, while the Dems desperately need more people to smoke to fund all their new health care programs. It looks like the citizens aren't cooperating with either one.

In Oregon the voters soundly defeated a plan to dramatically raise cigarette taxes to pay for their version of the SCHIP program, an outcome which has the Dems very nervous. They were hoping for a big win in Oregon that might encourage more Republicans to cross the aisle and vote with the Dems to override President Bush's veto of the first SCHIP bill. That's not going to happen after yesterday's big loss.