re: In other news, Congress just raised the age limit for buying tobacco to 21

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So you can die in a war at 18, get the death penalty at 18 and vote for your leaders at 18, but you're not mature enough to smoke? Frick these nanny state types.

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To be fair, you really shouldn’t be able to vote at 18

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Wound nicely inside a spending bill to avoid a government shutdown is a provision that will raise the minimum age for buying tobacco to 21 years old.

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Don't care about tobacco part, but I dislike how Congress does this to bills in general. Every common ground idea that would probably pass with 60% or more of the vote is used by both sides to include something that would never get majority by itself. Then sides start compromising some back & forth on enough parts of bill including pork barrel projects to get 50% plus 1. Spending bills should just be spending bills on already authorized programs not used to throw in crap.

Most people can agree to some needed fixes to immigration, but you just can't pass a fix for asylum language as even the ones that agree are going to hold out for DACA and a lot of other stuff, so it sits undone. I know some things are too complex for such a simplification, but I also think that's the mindset and that regardless They will work from a system of taking a simple highly supported common ground solution to use to get pages and pages of added stuff for political gain instead just passing common ground first and by itself. Not every law needs to be its own library. Yes Nancy P you should read bills first and know what's in them before passing them.

They also need to include more sunset provisions especially in new programs, laws, and tax increases. If they make it good enough to pass without a bunch of pay offs, pork barrel, and compromises that will only work for that one specific congress it will be good enough to re-authorize in couple of years.

Seniority needs to go away, and appointments should rotate. My decision making on which Senator or Rep to vote for shouldn't entail keeping or losing a place on a powerful committee. I can't speak for actual respect from others & ability to win leadership votes, but outside of that rules for Congress shouldn't favor one individual member over another just because of how long they have been in Congress. Once out of office they shouldn't be called Senator or President or speaker as they are job titles not titles of nobility.

Let them mother frickers smoke

Soooooo the underage kids will all just go full in for vaping get hooked on the nicotine and then at 21 go in for cigarettes. People will get the diseases a few years later now.


Look once you have let the genie out of the lamp you cannot put him back in.

I am not reading g through 7 pages. Someone please tell me I am not the only one pissed off they shoved this in a budget bill when it has nothing to do with the budget. This kind of piggy backing is bullshite.

Poor skanks :(

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don’t agree that this isn’t budget related. Smokers and tobacco users are disproportionately costly to Medicare and Medicaid.

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What do you think this bill will do for Medicare and Medicaid? Smoking has gone down tremendously on its own. Roughly 10% of 18-24 year olds smoke these days. This provision is just a feel good compromise from tobacco companies that has no real bite.

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no one should be

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Austin

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Checks out.

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Tobacco users should have to pay more in health insurance premiums (and not just that $25 nonsense that some companies enforce).

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They do. A lot more