As a smoker, I am confused by the mixed messages I am getting from our fearless leaders. Are they going to financially attack smokers to raise funds to fix the budget or to get more people to quit smoking?

I have heard both reported by local news.

Of course, knowing how selfless and well-meaning our fearless leaders are, I must assume that they are raising taxes on cigarettes to encourage people to quit.

May I make a bold suggestion? Why raise taxes by only a meager $1.50? If raising the tax has proven to get people to quit, why not raise it by $5? Why not $10? I bet that would make even more people quit.

Here is a better idea: If smoking is the evil bringer-of-death that we all know it is, why not do the right thing and ban it entirely? I have looked through the Constitution several times and not once have I found anything about the “right to smoke.”

Knowing the integrity of our esteemed Maine state government, I know that they would gladly forgo the paltry sum of taxes they stand to gain from this mechanism of death in order to protect us from ourselves.

Frank Phillips, Auburn

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