NO FEDERAL TAX INCREASE ON TOBACCO!

A panel recently convened by Secretary Thompson has recommended a proposal that would raise the federal tax on a pack of cigarettes by a whopping $2-- to be piled atop the massive local and state taxes and the $246 billion Master Settlement Agreement which is currently being paid by smokers alone.

Apparently "too much" is never enough.

This lastest stab at regressive, discriminatory and bullying taxation has already been endorsed by crusading legislators who long-ago forgot that smokers are citizens, ostensibly entitled to both equal protection and equal rights.

Instead, this proposal is once again rationalized as merely being "for the smokers own good" and, of course, "for the children."

But the obvious and by now transparent reality is that government is at war with a quarter of its citizens, pulling out every heavy gun in its arsenal (punitive taxation, legislated banishment and official demonization) to bring them to their knees and to force them to behave-- in their formerly private lives--in a "government-approved" manner.

We, the undersigned, urge that the government stop this relentless strong- arm crusade and start acting again like the government foreseen by the founding fathers-- not a government composed of wicked stepmothers and brass-knuckled nannies.

We urge you to reject this newest proposal for another $2 tax on cigarettes, and further to reject any other proposal that advances this rank discrimination.