The quintessential Republican approach to policymaking

December 5, 2006

Mississippi is home to one of the more successful anti-smoking programs in the country. Between 1999 and 2004, the program reduced smoking by 48% among public middle school students (from 23% to 12%) and by 32% among public high school students (from 32.5% to 22.1%).

Naturally, Mississippi’s Republican governor, Haley Barbour, who happens to be a former lobbyist for the tobacco industry, has decided to kill the program by eliminating its funding.

“This is truly a case of one man, a longtime tobacco industry lobbyist, using his power to destroy a program that was reducing tobacco use among Mississippi’s kids,” said Matthew Myers, President of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, a national nonprofit organization.

In a report to be issued Wednesday, the group documents what it calls Barbour’s “relentless attack” on what it said was the nation’s most successful anti-smoking program.

Barbour complained that the program received its funding directly from the courts and that it needed legislative approval, according to Myers. When the legislature passed a bill to continue the funding, Barbour vetoed it and went back to the courts to withdraw all remaining monies from the program.

Myers says he believes Barbour’s motive was to protect his longtime clients in the tobacco industry. Barbour served as a lobbyist for tobacco clients from 1998 to 2002. His firm, Barbour, Griffin, & Rogers, was paid a total of $3.8 million by the tobacco companies, according to reports obtained by the United States Senate Office of Public Records.

Barbour said he killed the program because Partnership for a Healthy Mississippi’s budget wasn’t transparent enough. The organization responded by noting that the Partnership’s audits are made public every year.

I don’t have an overarching point here, other than the belief that this seems to be a quintessential example of Republican policymaking circa 2006. Hire a far-right lobbyist, find a successful government program that benefits the public, kill it, and lie about it.

And he’s considered “pro-life”, of course.

What can I say, except… Republican voters are morons.

  • What I really hate about Republican’ts.

    “You have to put it through the legislature, the courts shouldn’t do this.”

    So they do. Then:

    “Thanks, now I can veto it.”

    Yah, so much more democratic to have one man vetoing the legislature than having a court under review setting up the program.

    I really hate this about Republican’ts.

  • Racerx: What can I say, except… Republican voters are morons

    as i said on my site the other day, ‘…from the preznit’s newspaper in his real hometown of New Haven in the teeny-dicked state of rather feminine Connecticut: Are George W. Bush lovers certifiable?: ‘A collective “I told you so” will ripple through the world of Bush-bashers once news of Christopher Lohse’s study gets out. Lohse, a social work master’s student at Southern Connecticut State University, says he has proven what many progressives have probably suspected for years: a direct link between mental illness and support for President Bush.’

  • Haley Barbour’s Favorite Anti-Abortion Slogans:

    Abortion Stops a Beating Heart Potential Marlboro Customer.

    Its a ChildNicotine Addiction, Not a Choice.

    They really are vile, repulsive and immoral. “Lets force Moms to bear children then not fund care for the child or the parent, lets use the kids as cannon fodder in wars we lie to start, and the ones that live we can feed to our chemical and tobacco companies as expendable sources of revenue!”

    Some platform them Rethugs have got themselves.

  • The story of what Jeb Bush did to Florida’s very successful tobacco prevention program is nearly the same. The previous governor of Florida was a national pioneer in tobacco prevention aimed at countering the tobacco marketing messages that bombard young people. He led Florida to sue the big tobacco companies, and was one of the very first states to settle for tens of millions, and then to plunge a good portion of the windfall into prevention programs. And the programs worked well for a long time.

    Enter Jeb. Because the program worked so well at the $70 million level, he cut it in half in one year, and in the second year devastated the program, leaving it with a $1 million annual budget. This was a program that demonstrably led to 20-50% reductions in youth smoking, depending on the age and the year. The program became a CDC “best practice” and many other states and national organizations based their own work on it.

    As an additional kick in the balls to the deceased Governor Chiles, who had divested state employee pension funds from tobacco company stocks, Jeb RE-invested that money into those companies. The message to state heatlh workers: not only must you stop preventing kids from taking up smoking, which surely kills 1/3 of anyone who touches it, but your retirement security depends in part on the killer companies and their continued success.

    And now, some well deserved profanity: Jeb is a motherfucker.

  • Overarching point: Republicans will work in contradiction to what is good for America if they can make some money off of it.

  • Hey CB,

    Is there a story here about well-connected southern governors gutting tobacco-prevention program? Any other governors in addition to Jeb Bush and Haley Barbour? Enquiring minds want to know. With Boehner et al, are Republicans the rabid pro-tobacco party? And why are they trying to hurt our kids?

  • Politicians like Barbour work for vested interests. Children aren’t measureable vested interests except to thier parents. Barbour and his ilk are cold-hearted, unsoulful, miserable excuses for political leaders. The world, and by extension the US, would be better off if people like Barbour would use the products they lobby on behalf. Give Haley 2 – 3 packs of cigarettes a day to smoke himself. Make him smoke at this level for the next 3 years straight so Mississippi children can see what cigarette consumption can do to a person, especially since he has hacked tobacco abatement funds with such ease. -Kevo Our children deserve better than the likes of Haley Barbour!

  • To riff on zeitgeist:
    “Save the baby humans smokers”

    Barbour the Barbarian is a subtle as a sledgehammer to the ear. Not that I’m dropping a hint or anything. I can see him grovelling before his tobacco lords and rasping “I have done thy will, o great masters. Shall I start work on the kindergarteners?”

    What next, ciggy vending machines in the school cafeterias? And of course, while the ReThugs will shrug (or dry wash their hands) when they hear something like this, try mentioning condoms within 50 miles of a high schooler and see what happens.

  • The solution to the Barbourism in Mississippi is the ballot initiative. A governor cannot overturn the will of the people. Just start making places smoke-free—and starve the little uberschweinen out of its hole….

  • I guess child abuse isnt illegal or immoral when practiced by corporations and their government pawns.

  • Give Haley 2 – 3 packs of cigarettes a day to smoke himself. Make him smoke at this level for the next 3 years straight so Mississippi children can see what cigarette consumption can do to a person, — kevo, @9

    Wouldn’t hang too many expectations on that one. Mine’s a 2-pack habit of 41yrs duration (5 of them — the stressful college years — at 3 packs a day)… 🙂

  • In somewhat related news, American Public Health Association and Partnership for Prevention released their annual report ranking the top healthiest states. Most of the healthiest states (say top 15) are blue states (a few purple states), and a red or two.

    Guess who’s at the bottom. Yep, the red southern states. How are those Republicans working out down south? Now we see Barbour wants to eliminate preventative smoking initiatives. I guess being second from the bottom on the list of healthiest states isn’t good enough for Barbour.

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