BCT Editorial – 6/12/06

This page was last updated on June 13, 2006.

Salutes & Boots; Editorial; Beaver County Times; June 12, 2006.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject editorial.

“Boot: To the state House Health and Human Services Committee for voting 14-14 on a bill that would have banned smoking in most public places. The bill needed one more vote to be sent to the full House for consideration. Democrats on the committee deserve a special boot. While 12 of the 16 Republicans on the committee voted for the bill, 10 of the 12 Democrats voted against it, one of them being state Rep. Nick Kotik, D-45, Robinson Township. What does it say about the pathetic state of the Democratic Party that on a health-care and worker-safety issue that the Republican Party is more progressive and enlightened?”

[RWC] The subject bill is House Bill 1489.

If I weren’t used to PA RINOs, I’d be surprised that so-called Republicans voted for something like HB 1489. What I don’t understand is why Democrats voted against it. Naturally, the editorial didn’t bother to tell us why Democrats opposed it. My Internet searches to date have not discovered why Democrats would vote against an anti-smoking law that appeared to me to be pretty inclusive.

As I’ve noted in previous critiques, I oppose anti-smoking laws even though I’m not a smoker and thoroughly dislike the practice.