ANDERSON TOWNSHIP -- Raising taxes on cigarettes won't cut teen smoking -- that was one message sent to U.S. Congressman Rob Portman from those who came to talk policy and politics Saturday.
More than 40 attended a "town hall" meeting held by Mr. Portman, R-Terrace Park, at Anderson High School.
Tobacco legislation, Social Security and taxes were among the topics on the minds of those in the audience, which generally reflected the conservatism of Mr. Portman's 2nd Congressional District. Speakers had nothing good to say about the legislation killed in the Senate on Wednesday that would have raised taxes by $1.10 per pack over five years, cost tobacco companies at least $516 billion over 25 years and subjected tobacco to federal regulation.
"Can you name one tax that was ever legislated to control a targeted behavior that was successful without fostering other undesirable consequences?" asked Jeff Learman, 46, a software engineer from Loveland.
Those consequences, he said, could include a black market for cigarettes.
One man said he was tired of government trying to regulate people's social lives through taxes; another said deciding to smoke is an individual's responsibility.
"I thought that the Senate bill got away from its original intent, which was to reduce teen smoking, and became a much larger big-tax, big-government program," Mr. Portman said..
He said an effective campaign against teen smoking can be waged for much less money. For example, Mr. Portman said, public service advertising could be done along the lines of the anti-drug campaign by the Partnership for a Dree-Free America.
Social Security was a concern of Kay Russ, 54, a retired Delta employee and Anderson Township resident.
She doesn't want Social Security counted as part of the federal budget. Otherwise, she said, people get an inflated idea of what's available to spend. An accounting trick, she said, makes it appear as though there is extra.
"We really don't have extra money right now," she said.
Others talked about doing away with the country's tax code. The House on Wednesday, attempting to put life into the tax-reform debate, passed a bill to do away with much of the nation's income tax code by 2003.
"I want to commend you on trying to abolish the tax code," one man told Mr. Portman. "It's the best thing I've seen come out of D.C. in a long time."
