{"id":2630,"date":"2014-11-11T02:14:25","date_gmt":"2014-11-11T02:14:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=2630"},"modified":"2014-11-19T01:00:37","modified_gmt":"2014-11-19T01:00:37","slug":"mr-butts-make-a-return-to-doonesbury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=2630","title":{"rendered":"Mr. Butts makes a return to Doonesbury"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Mr<\/a><\/p>\n

I would still like to do a longer piece sometime on Mr. Butts, the great anti-tobacco character that Garry Trudeau invented 20 or 30 years ago in Doonesbury.<\/p>\n

Trudeau brought Mr. Butts out of the closet Sunday for a great cartoon on the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement. One of the great frustration with the $280 billion settlement is that everyone assumed the money being paid out to the states (to offset Medicaid and other health care costs generated by tobacco use) would go toward anti-tobacco education. Well, unfortunately, there was nothing in the agreement mandating that the money had to go to anti-tobacco education. A fair chunk of it did get spent for that use initially, but eventually, more and more states figured out they could send it however they wanted.<\/p>\n

Eventually, the money got used as a catch-all windfall — A way for states to increase their budgets while avoiding increasing property taxes, etc. I’m not completely down on the 1998 MSA because some good did come out of, but this was a huge lost opportunity.<\/p>\n

Anyway, Trudeau, through tobacco spokesman Mr. Butts, points out to the Sunday comics readers that only 1.9 percent of the MSA settlement dollars has been spent on anti-tobacco education. Good for Trudeau for publicizing this and keeping up his long fight against Big Tobacco.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I would still like to do a longer piece sometime on Mr. Butts, the great anti-tobacco character that Garry Trudeau invented 20 or 30 years ago in Doonesbury. Trudeau brought Mr. Butts out of the closet Sunday for a great cartoon on the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement. One of the great frustration with the $280 … Continue reading Mr. Butts makes a return to Doonesbury<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2631,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[315,363,364],"tags":[668,694,695],"class_list":["post-2630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-1998-master-settlement-agreement","category-doonesbury","category-mr-butts","tag-1998-master-settlement-agreement","tag-doonesbury","tag-mr-butts"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/Mr-Butts.jpg?fit=900%2C1249&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4hpEa-Gq","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":204,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=204","url_meta":{"origin":2630,"position":0},"title":"Ohio can grab tobacco funds","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"December 23, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"The Ohio Supreme Court ruled this week that the State Legislature does have the power to raid $250 million of the state's tobacco funds. This is money from the 1998 $280 billion Tobacco Settlement Agreement between the states and Big Tobacco. Several states have used these monies simply to balance\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Anti-tobacco campaign"","block_context":{"text":"Anti-tobacco campaign","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?cat=7"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2293,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=2293","url_meta":{"origin":2630,"position":1},"title":"Good news everyone, teen smoking rate drops to lowest point in 22 years","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"June 13, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Good news. According to new figure from the Centers for Disease Control, the smoking rate for teens has dropped to 15.7 percent, the lowest\u00a0in 22 years that the National Youth Risk Surveys have been tracking the smoking rate. The high point (or low point depending upon your perspective) of teen\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "1998 Master Settlement Agreement"","block_context":{"text":"1998 Master Settlement Agreement","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?cat=315"},"img":{"alt_text":"good news","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/good-news.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":495,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=495","url_meta":{"origin":2630,"position":2},"title":"How Big Tobacco got away with the Crime of the Century","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"March 28, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"It all began in 1994. Years of outrage over decades of Big Tobacco's lies finally seemed to be coming to fruition. 1994 was the year it seemed like we finally turned a corner in the fight against Big Tobacco. The early 90s was pretty much the height of the lung\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Tobacco"","block_context":{"text":"Big Tobacco","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?cat=10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/joe_camel.jpg?fit=432%2C604&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":769,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=769","url_meta":{"origin":2630,"position":3},"title":"Oregon Supreme Court came, saw, then kicks Philip Morris’ ASS","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"December 3, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Philip Morris got its ass handed to it by the Oregon Supreme Court, which shockingly (to me, because the good guys rarely win these cases, at least completely win) upheld a jury award to the widow of a smoker killed by lung cancer. The Supreme Court ruled that Philip Morris\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Tobacco"","block_context":{"text":"Big Tobacco","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?cat=10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/oregonian.jpg?fit=380%2C250&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":291,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=291","url_meta":{"origin":2630,"position":4},"title":"American Lung Association: You all FAIL!!!","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"January 24, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"And you! And you! And you, too! And you, three!! The American Lung Association came out with its annual \"State of Tobacco Control\" report this week, and not surprisingly, pretty much every state got failing grades. In fact, Montana was only one of five states in the entire nation that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "American Lung Association"","block_context":{"text":"American Lung Association","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?cat=6"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/theloungeisback.files.wordpress.com\/2011\/01\/reactsummit08groupphoto.jpg?w=350&h=200&crop=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3580,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=3580","url_meta":{"origin":2630,"position":5},"title":"Water wheel removes 4 million cigarette butts from Baltimore Harbor","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"October 22, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Something that doesn't get talked a lot about the scourge of tobacco is the littering and pollution problem caused by millions upon millions of cigarette butts being tossed aside into the environment. Cigarette butts are the No. 1 item by weight cleaned up on U.S. beaches. Yeah, those little tiny\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Baltimore"","block_context":{"text":"Baltimore","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?cat=732"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/waterwheelimage1-1.jpg?fit=730%2C448&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/waterwheelimage1-1.jpg?fit=730%2C448&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/waterwheelimage1-1.jpg?fit=730%2C448&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/waterwheelimage1-1.jpg?fit=730%2C448&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2630"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2630\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2655,"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2630\/revisions\/2655"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}