Mr. Butts Happy About Defeating Oregon Cigarette Tax [1]
Submitted by Anne Landman [2] on
The corporate-backed astroturf [3] group Citizens for a Sound Economy [4] (CSE), which morphed into a new group called "FreedomWorks [5]" in 2004, has helped defeat a bill in Oregon that aimed to raise the state's cigarette tax by 84 cents, to match that of neighboring Washington state. The tax was aimed at encouraging more smokers to quit while raising funds to provide health insurance to over 100,000 of the state's underprivileged children. In addition to the controversial way [6] in which CSE/FreedomWorks has been found to expand its mailing list and coffers (namely, by tricking people signing up for insurance policies), the group has long been closely linked to the tobacco industry [7] and Philip Morris [8] in particular. The tobacco industry [9] is notorious for using third parties [10] to fight legislation it doesn't like. Mr. Butts was so happy about defeating the Oregon tax, he created a YouTube video [11] about his efforts.