Has the crusade against smoking gone too far, or are laws needed to protect people from secondhand smoke?
Maryland State Sen. Ida Ruben and Jerry Taylor of the Cato Institute stepped into the “Crossfire” with hosts Tucker Carlson and Paul Begala to debate the issue. CARLSON: Ida Ruben … let’s be upfront about this, this is really about telling people what to do with their private lives. You know how I know that? Because the number of children killed by smoking in cars stands at precisely zero. The number of children killed or injured by air bags stands in the dozens in just over the last five years. If you really cared about protecting kids in cars, you’d ban air bags, wouldn’t you? RUBEN: Not necessarily, no. Because I’m trying to save lives — I’m trying to prevent … CARLSON: Kids have been killed by air bags, and none have been killed by cigarettes. RUBEN: That’s not true. You have defects in children from parents smoking. You have lots of illnesses in children growing up because they’ve been exposed to the carcinogens in tobacco. I think it’s important for us to do everything we ca
