In response to attempts by Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., to stop the EPA from regulating carbon dioxide under the Clean Air Act, the American Lung Association has posted this billboard in his district:
The clear implication here is that Upton’s legislation would somehow make children get asthma or suffer some other pulmonary disease. That makes this one of the most dishonest advertising campaigns by a government-subsidized entity since…well, at least since President Obama promised that you could keep your health insurance if you liked it.
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Note that unless you are actually failing to get oxygen, carbon dioxide is not harmful to your health — it certainly is not harmful in the slightly increased amounts that supposedly cause global warming. It does not make you cough or hurt your lungs, as this billboard’s picture clearly implies. The image of children wearing gas masks might make sense if we were talking about a congressman who was trying to make more black smoke rise from Coketown’s chimneys, but this is just a simple political scare tactic.
If you were considering a donation to the American Lung Association, you might want to reconsider. Congress should also reconsider the many government subsidies they get, which includes $8 million from the EPA alone since 1999 and $900,000 in total government grants last year, according to the group’s IRS form 990. That does not include the millions in taxpayer dollars that its local and state affilliates take in.
Dear taxpayer, the above is what you’re paying for.
