Democrats Snuff Out All Tobacco Sales within U.S. Congress
Starting this month, sundries shops on both sides of the U.S. Capitol complex have stopped selling cigarettes and other tobacco products leaving lawmakers and staffers who want to light up during a quick break to walk several blocks to the nearest deli that sells cigarettes. Just last month, Capitol Hill staffers could buy their cigarettes and chewing tobacco at Capitol complex shops at a sizeable discount because no sales tax was applied. Then, two weeks ago, House and Senate staffers returned from winter break to find shelves stocked only with lip balm where their Marlboros and Camels used to be. The Democratic-led prohibitions have left many smokers fuming, reports the Washington Post.
“The effort to cleanse the Earth of all temptation is probably going to be unsuccessful,” said Rep. John M. McHugh (R-New York) before adding that he’s resigned to the smoking crack-down.
Within days of taking power in January 2007, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California) banished smokers from the Speaker’s Lobby to the House balcony. The Speaker’s Lobby smoking ban was just the first in a series of moves to stamp out all traces of tobacco in the Capitol complex.
Last spring, anti-tobacco warrior Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-New Jersey) dispatched young aides – some under 18 – to the Capitol sundries shops to purchase cigarettes. Sales were completed without identification being checked, according to Lautenberg’s staff. Lautenberg was particularly outraged to find that staffers spent only $3.95 for a pack of cigarettes in the U.S. Senate shop that cost $4.81 at a deli two blocks away, his staff said.
“The Senate was operating as a discount cigarette outlet. It was time to shut it down,” Lautenberg said in a statement this week. Together with Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-California), chairman of the Senate Rules and Administration Committee, Lautenberg has succeeded in doing just that.
