No Strings Attached

By way of John Combest, I saw an article in the Southeast Missourian that would tickle Nick Naylor pink. Ten years ago, Big Tobacco settled a lawsuit with the states agreeing to pay $294 billion over 25 years to fund health care and smoking-cessation programs. Unfortunately, there were no strings attached to the way the 46 states spent these settlement funds. According to the article, less than 4 percent of the money was used for the programs they were intended for. This is far from the first time government has misused funds. It’s the same old bologna, just a different flavor.