Michigan has been on the tobacco-offensive lately, raising the per-pack tax from a slapping a stupendously regressive 2500% tax on roll-your-own tobacco, and they’d like to be the next in a growing line of States to ban smoking in bars and restaurants.

The policy debate about “workplace smoking bans” in Michigan has been on the radar here at No Third Solution for the last few years (see my posts from 5/08, 12/07, 8/06). So far, it’s gone nowhere, but the Demopublicans in Lansing are inching closer to a compromise that would (fortunately) exempt most tobacco/specialty shops, but would apply to all bars and restaurants, but would exempt the Detroit casinos.

Some House Democrats won’t support a smoking ban unless Detroit casinos are exempt, fearing that tribal casinos not subject to the state law could gain a competitive advantage.

It is so absurdly short-sighted to suggest that the tribal casinos would gain a competitive advantage, all-the-while ignoring the fact that right now some restaurants (the management/ownership of which have chosen to go smokefree) will lose that competitive advantage the moment a ban is enacted.

There is no shortage of smokefree places to eat, drink or play. The casinos already have non-smoking Poker rooms (and probably other game rooms, too.) Ninety-nine percent of franchise fast-food restaurants are smoke free and have been for years (voluntarily). Nearly every independent deli is smoke free. Plenty of diners and upscale restaurants have also made the move, and smoking is not permitted inside any of the major sport venues.

With that in mind, you’d think the “small-government” Republicans might be opposed to the ban. And you’d be wrong. Spokesmen for the Senate Republicans argue that since “consumer demand [is] already…creating smokefree options” that,

[I]f there is a ban, it should be a complete ban… “A level playing field for everyone is the only fair course to chart.”

Right now, any restaurant or bar owner can choose whether to make his or her restaurant smokefree, or smokefull. The playing field is level. What makes (or would make) the playing field less-than-level is government intervention. Rather than recognizing this objective and painfully obvious fact, ending once-and-for-all the “discussion” about whether government has any business regulating the affairs of individuals, in their individual and voluntary capacities, government decides to stay the course, and as a result, more government intervention should apply in order to rectify the injustices brought about by government intervention. Epic. Fucking. Fail.

This is fairness and equality of the Harrison Bergeron strain: it’s not unfair if we cripple everyone.