Another Example of California's Flawed Government

California is home to some of the nation's toughest anti-smoking legislation. The state collects an extra $0.25 tax per pack to pay for the adverse health effects of smoking and to fund a public-service campaign that advertises against tobacco use.

California is also home to CalWORKS, a program designed to help unemployed and low-income families. The California Legislature moved to close obvious fraud when CalWORKS cards were used out of state to fund extravagances such as vacations, casino gambling, and at strip clubs--all at taxpayer expense.

Despite that California leads the way on public efforts to discourage smoking and the California Legislature feels free to mandate the behavior of every-day Californians by banning certain incandescent light bulbs, the California Legislature rejected common-sense CalWORKS reforms (SB 417) designed to prevent those that receive taxpayer-funded CalWORKS benefits from purchasing alcohol and tobacco using those same benefits.

It really makes you wonder about what passes for logic in Sacramento--either that or they really need to check the old plumbing in the Capitol for lead contamination.