http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2011/12/01/financial/f033812S33.DTL

Philip Morris is suing the Australian government for their efforts to make smoking less attractive to the young and thus reduce the long-term costs to their public healthcare system. This is another global corporate titan putting greed and profit above public health and welfare. Here’s a wake-up for Philips Morris. Healthcare here in the USA is one of our biggest social challenges yet to be addressed, with healthcare costs in the meantime spiraling out of control. If smoking were eliminated entirely, it would probably reduce those costs by at least a third within the first year, and greatly attenuate the exponential out-year increases. In the very near future we should see the following choice being placed before American voters: given the choice between a) ever increasing taxation and employee contributions to cover healthcare,  or b) simply eliminating the sale of tobacco products, at least in this country…which does the public chose?

To get through the labyrinth of problems that need to be resolved, we’re going to be presenting the American public with some really tough choices. It will be a true test of American democracy: does the majority really rule this country for the periods they’re elected to serve, and the entire nation gets behind them, or does the loser do everything they can to undermine the majority and defeat our democratic processes…the future of our nation rides on the answer to that question.