The State Needs Money...

...and smoking is bad.

The Los Angeles Times ran an oped this morning by a fellow from the Tax Foundation. I think he makes a good case for why raising cigarette taxes, yet again, is not a good idea nor a good way to try to close the budget deficit.

I think he missed something, though, that I've mentioned here before: Isn't it a bit silly, if not stupid, to say you need to raise a tax to close a hole in the budget that, by that taxes' very design, is meant to get more people to stop smoking and thus lower revenues from that source?

And those people are running this country.