CancerScam Book Review by Jim Powell DIVERSION OF FEDERAL CANCER FUNDS TO POLITICSJames T. Bennett and Thomas J. DiLorenzoThe authors explain how government officials decided that since smoking, drinking, overeating, and other behavior contribute to certain diseases for which treatment is subsidized, therefore the government must restrict--ultimately ban--more and more things it doesn't approve of. Today, Bennett and DiLorenzo report that public health spending "means raising taxes on liquor and tobacco, restricting cigarette and alcohol advertising, banning smoking in the workplace, or forcing people to use seat belts in their cars and to wear helmets while riding their bicycles." Officials denounce those who defend the "new concept" of "choice being attached to one's behavior." The book also shows how politically-connected "charities" such as the American Cancer Society, the American Lung Association, and the American Heart Association brazenly disregard IRS regulations against lobbying and scramble for taxpayer dollars. Supposedly to discourage smoking, cigarette taxes have funded parties with free food, free drinks, free deejay music, free beach balls, and free Frisbees.
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